Everyone Loves Mob
by Green Kneesocks
Summary: Mob is a sweet, kindhearted, nice, adorable, and clueless girl. It's a recipe for disaster. Fem!Mob. MobXPretty much everyone
1. Onigawara

A/N: I love fem!Mob stories and we are bereft of them. That's where I come in. This is, for once, not in the same continuity as my main story Shigeko Kageyama AKA Mob. Check it out if you like coming of age, romance, exploration of how gender influences the way a person is seen, and existential conundrums. This is mostly just pure Mob cuteness. Enjoy!

Mob is a sweet, kindhearted, nice, adorable, and clueless girl. It's a recipe for disaster.

The first of such disasters occurred between her and the former shadow leader of Salt Middle School, Onigawara Tenga. Though, if you were to ask Mob she'd just say it was a simple misunderstanding.

It all started in the body improvement club of all places. Mob was, as usual, trying to keep pace with the rest of the club. She was keeping up…sort of….she could at least still see them as they made their circuit around the school. She was at least not about to pass out, which was a plus in her book. She ran along on her own, deep in her own thoughts, and didn't notice someone slowing down to match her pace.

It was a real shame that cats had no idea how fluffy they were. Like, one cat would never know the joy of petting another cat. That was very sad. Cats would never know how soft their own noses were, either. Did cats know that they were adorable? Or did they just think that they were normal and boring? What did cats see humans as? Did cats think of humans as humans or just super weird cats? She's have to see what Master Reigen said, he knew everything.

"Magical Girl!" a harsh whisper broke her from her thoughts.

"Yes, Onigawara?" asked Mob responding to a nickname she never asked for and didn't care for. She wasn't a magical girl, she was an esper and ESP wasn't magic. Master Reigen had said so.

"Are you doing anything after school today?" he asked after what seemed to Mob like a while. Maybe he was having trouble catching his breath. They had been running for a while. Cardio was good for the heart.

"No, nothing. My master could always call me into work but I was just going to go home and watch TV. Maybe I could read, too, but I already read the weekly Shoujo. I should do my homework, too. But aside from all of that I don't have anything going on." Said Mob as she ran

"Oh. You're busy. Sorry to bother you." Said Onigawara. His voice sounded weird, there, but Mob had trouble reading tones.

"No, I'm not busy at all. Not unless Master Reigen calls me." Said Mob. That didn't count as busy. That was just waiting for tomorrow to happen, or for Ritsu to get home. Whichever came first. Probably Ritsu coming home. He could always just live at school, though. He liked school a lot. He was really good at it.

"So…do you…do you want to hang out with me?" asked Onigawara. Once again Mob thought that it was a long pause. Master Reigen said that you always had to respond quickly when you were in a conversation. He knew everything about talking to people.

"Ok." Said Mob. They ran along in silence for a moment before he sped up and joined the others. Mob watched him. It was nice, she liked hanging out with people, especially her friends, even if her friends gave her jobs she never asked for and nicknames that weren't accurate. She was a girl but she wasn't magical. Not that she would be mean and say anything.

Maybe she would have fun, too. She hoped that it wasn't anything having to do with shadow leader stuff. If it was she'd try to worm her way out of it somehow. The ability to worm our way out of things was what separated us from the animals, Master Reigen had said, aside from the worms. Did worms every have things that they needed to worm their way out of? Did worms have tiny underground cities? Did they have schools and friends and clubs? She felt the ground with her powers. Lots of worms, but they weren't really doing anything. They didn't seem to be hanging out.

What did people do when they hung out? Worms didn't but people did. People had lives and stuff that they lived. She was trying to make the most of her youth, now, which meant doing things that she didn't usually do, like hanging out outside of school and clubs with people. Well, people who weren't Ritsu. But what did people do when they hung out? She liked to know what was going to happen before it happened, that way she could go over the rules for whatever social interaction it was. She didn't know all the rules, just the ones she had been taught. She knew she was weird and clueless so she tried to be, well, not weird and clueless. She wished she knew what they would be doing. What did hanging out consist of?

Hanging out turned out to be drinking soda in Ankle Park.

Mob liked milk better. But she said nothing. She needed to be polite.

Onigawara was telling her a story about the time he totally defended Salt's territory from Mayo Middle School and beat their shadow leader into a pulp. Mob didn't like that. She hated violence. It was so mean. People should be nice to each other. She said so.

"Sorry! I didn't know that you didn't like…sorry." Said Onigawara. He looked down at his shoes for a while. Mob looked down at hers. He pulled out his phone.

"My mom says that I have to go home now. Later." Said Onigawara as he got up and left. Mob nodded and waved to him. It was neat how he could tell that his mom had texted him without his phone ringing or vibrating. Mob sat in the park for a little while longer. It was really nice out. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and bees were trying to reproduce with them. Well, that was Mob's understanding, anyway.

She sat there for a few more minutes before deciding to head home. Master Reigen still hadn't called her in. She didn't like it when he called her in on short notice but she also didn't like it when he didn't call her in…she missed him. She wondered if it would be ok for them to hang out. He was her master and her boss but she also thought of him like a friend, sometimes. Friends could hang out. She had just finished hanging out with her friends, though they hadn't done much. Not that Mob was complaining.

She didn't complain, or have cause to complain, the next day.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Or the next.

Onigawara had wanted to hang out with her every single day after school. Sometimes she couldn't. Sometimes she had work, but he still hung out with her during body improvement club. He told her things about his life, but not violent things because she didn't like it. He told her about his older brother, about how his parents had split up, about how school was hard for him sometimes. Mob agreed. School was hard for her sometimes, too. There was a lot to pay attention to and a lot to take in and sometimes it was hard to tell what you were supposed to pay attention to and what you were supposed to ignore. The lights were hard to ignore, sometimes. He agreed, the humming could be annoying. Music class was something else they could agree on, recorders sounded terrible.

Then he assured her that he had nothing to do with all of those girl's recorders going missing.

Mob agreed. It was obvious that he didn't. Why would anyone want to steal recorder pieces? Stealing was wrong and used recorder tops were germy and gross.

He got quiet when she agreed with him. Then he reached over to her before he pulled his hand back. Mob asked him of something was stuck to her uniform. Sometimes gum got stuck to her, or rather people stuck gum to her. She didn't know why they did that, just that it happened.

When she told him about the gum he made a fist and said that he would make sure that nobody ever did that to her again. Mob told him that he didn't have to do anything but he said that he wanted to.

For the next few school days nobody stuck gum to her uniform again. They even stopped tugging on her braids as she walked by.

Also in those days Onigawara kept on walking with her. She told him things about herself, but not too many because people didn't like it when you sounded conceited like that. She told him about how she liked cats a lot, and pink. She told him about how she liked Evangelion, too, even though her mom told her not to like it because it wasn't for girls. She told him about how she liked milk, too, because it was delicious and made you strong.

The next day he stopped by her classroom during lunch, gave her an extra milk carton, and then left the room as quickly as he came in.

He did that the next couple of days.

Then she found a capsule toy in her shoebox. It was a cat.

The next one was also a cat.

The next one was a sheet of Evangelion stickers. She put them on her phone and school bag. Ritsu asked where she got them from. She told him that someone was leaving her things in her shoebox. He got weird look and told her that he'd make sure nobody was playing a trick on her.

The last thing she found in her shoebox was a note. It just asked her to meet him behind the school. He didn't sign his name but Mob knew that it was Onigawara's handwriting. She took out a pencil and corrected the spelling for him. She knew that he had trouble writing things down.

She met him behind the school. He was kicking the ground a lot. She handed him the corrected letter.

"I did this to help, not be mean. Please don't think that I'm mean." Said Mob. She handed him the note he took it after a moment.

"So you knew that it was me?" asked Onigawara. Mob nodded.

"Yes. I recognized your handwriting." Said Mob

"Did you know that it was me putting all of that stuff in your shoe locker?" asked Onigawara. He didn't seem to want to look at her. Maybe the sun was in his eyes.

"No." said Mob. She didn't know that it was him. She hadn't given much thought to who it could have been, honestly. Either the person would come out and say it was them or they wouldn't. One of the two.

"Do you care?" asked Onigawara after a while.

"Yes. if I know who it is then I can thank them and give them something in return." Said Mob. Onigawara took a deep breath and took a step towards her. Then another.

"Kageyama-" said Onigawara

"You can call me Mob, everyone else does. Or Shigeko. My brother calls me that." Said Mob

"Mob, then. Listen….it's me. I'm the one who's been putting stuff in your shoe locker." Said Onigawara. His voice sounded kind of scratchy. Mob wanted to offer him some water but remembered that she had already drank from the bottle. That would have been too germy.

"Oh. Thank you so much for the gifts. But why? It's not my birthday or Christmas or Girl's Day." Said Mob

"Because I wanted to. Because I….yeah. I wanted to." Said Onigawara. He took another step closer to her.

"Why did you want to? Also, what do you want in return? When someone gives you a gift you're supposed to give them something in return. That's manners." Said Mob

"I just did! Ok! I wanted to get you stuff because I-I like-" said Onigawara before he was so unceremoniously interrupted.

"Sister, what are you doing back here?" asked Ritsu. Mob smiled. Ritsu was done with student council already. This was great! Now they could hang out together!

"Onigawara left a note in my shoebox asking me to meet him here. He's the one who's been giving me stuff, too. Do you want to hang out with us?" asked Mob. She didn't see the wounded look that Onigawata wore, or the glare Ritsu gave him.

"Sister, I forgot my notebook in the student council room. Would you run up and get it for me?" asked Ritsu. Mob nodded. Of course she would help out her favorite and only little brother.

Mob wasn't there for what happened next but, after that day, Onigawara never offered to hang out with her again. The little presents in her shoebox stopped, too. When she asked him what he was going to say he just brushed her off.

Mob wondered what she had done wrong. She asked Ritsu if she had done anything wrong and all he said was that she was fine and that she needed to tell him if any guys started bothering her again.

When she talked to Master Reigen about it he just tugged her braid and told her that she was growing up.

This whole thing was so confusing.


	2. Shinji Kamuro

No matter how many times she tells him to Shinji Kamuro won't stop calling her Miss Kageyama.

The first time he calls her Miss Kageyama it's before the whole framing people mess started. It was the beginning of the school year and Mob was walking to class. Shinji stopped her and told her to fix her neckerchief because neat uniforms were part of the dress code. She does and tell him that he can call her Mob or Shigeko.

The next time he calls her Miss Kageyama it's, in retrospect, during the whole framing people thing. She was sitting with Tome on the stairs and looking at pictures Tome took of alien spacecraft. To Mob they just looked like airplanes but she said nothing about that. Tome was her friend and she was happy and that was what mattered. They had been sitting together on the stairs and, yes, they had maybe been blocking traffic so of course Shinji was still within his rights as their president to tell them to get up and shove out. There could have been a fire or something.

But he still called her Miss Kageyama. She said to call her Mob or Shigeko. He ignored her. Tome flipped him off while his back was turned.

"Well, at least you're Miss Kageyama. I'm just Kurata. That guy is such a pompous asshole." Tome had said. Mob didn't agree with Tome even though she sort of wanted to. It wasn't nice to talk about people behind their backs and it wasn't nice to curse. She was a very nice girl, it was her best quality. Master Reigen had told her that and she didn't want to let him down.

Still, Shinji could be kind of a jerk. Mob didn't know why Ritsu was friends with him. She told Ritsu what happened, well she told her family as they sat down to dinner, and Ritsu told her that he would handle it.

The next day she and Tome were sitting on the stairs again but Shinji didn't say a word. He just passed her with a short _"Miss Kageyama" _as a greeting. She, once again, tells him to call her Mob or Shigeko.

He doesn't.

Mob doesn't talk to him again for a while. She has to get that whole business with Claw sorted out before she gets the whole business with Ritsu framing people sorted out. She wasn't angry with her little brother, not at all. He obviously thought that he was doing a good thing but failed to see how his actions affected others. He would never intentionally do anything bad. He was Ritsu and he was wonderful and smart and the best little brother in the whole wide world. That's why Mob gets this whole thing sorted for him, because she loves him and this is what big sisters do.

Shinji's house is nice, she decides. She likes the color. The outside is painted a nice shade of white, like a hospital. Not the same shade of white as her living room. That's the same while as vanilla ice cream. There are a lot of shades of white. Mom and dad always get so stressed when she loses control of her powers and hurts the walls because, well, it's hard to match shade of white. There are a lot of shades of colors, too. Master Reigen says that there are colors that the human eye can't even see. Kind of like how normal people can't see auras. She stands in front of the house looking at it for a few moments, thinking about how many shades of white there are in the world, before the front door opens.

"Who are you and why are you staring at my house?" asked an older looking boy. Maybe Shinji's brother, or a cousin even. Sometimes people had cousins living with them. Mob didn't have any cousins. Both of her parents were the only children of only children. She wondered if Shinji had a lot of family. She wouldn't ask, though, because she wasn't sure if it was ok to ask and Master Reigen always said that if you aren't sure don't open your mouth.

"Is Shinji home?" Mob asked simply

"Why? What do you want?" asked the boy

"I want to talk to him." said Mob

"YOU want to talk to my little brother?" asked the boy

"Yes." said Mob just as simply. She wondered what the confusion was. It was probably her fault. She was pretty bad with words sometimes. All the times.

"You? Is this some kind of joke?" asked the boy

"No. I'm being serious. If Shinji isn't home can you tell him that Mob was here to talk to him?" asked Mob

"Oh no, he's home. Take my advice though….you could do so much better." Said the boy

Mob didn't say anything to that because, well, she didn't get his meaning. She'd rather keep her mouth shut if she didn't know what to say. It didn't seem like a nice thing, though, that his older brother had said. Siblings were supposed to be nice to each other. Your sibling was your best friend, that was why you had a sibling. Ritsu was her best friend. When they were little they used to play together all the time. Things were different now. He was through being mean, though, so that was good. Poor Shinji, though. His brother should have been nicer to him.

She was lead up the stairs and to a room at the end of the hall. The whole hallway smelled awful, but she didn't say anything because that would have been mean and she was not at all a mean person.

"He's all yours." Said Shinji's brother before he walked off. Mob stood in front of the door. She knew that the polite thing to do would be to knock, for front doors anyway. She and Ritsu never knocked. They just kept their doors opened unless they were changing or sleeping. She couldn't just let herself in, though, because this wasn't her house, so she knocked.

"Takuya, go away!" said Shinji through the door

"I'm not Takuya. Is that your brother? He was just here but now it's just me. Hi President Kamuro. I just wanted to talk to you, that's why I'm in your house." Said Mob trying to both sound polite and explain her presence in his house without sounding awkward. It probably still sounded awkward. She always sounded awkward.

"Miss Kageyama?" asked Shinji through the door. It opened just a crack.

"You can call me Shigeko, or Mob." Said Mob

"Why are you here?" asked Shinji. He had a weird tone that Mob couldn't place. He was looking at her through a tiny crack. Maybe if she could see him she could try to puzzle out what it was that he was feeling. Not that she was great at that either.

"Because I wanted to talk to you." Said Mob. The door slammed.

"Go away!" said Shinji

"Ok, but I don't have anything bad to say. I just came here to apologize." Said Mob. The door opened a crack again.

"Is your brother out there?" asked Shinji

"No. Ritsu is at home. Well, when I left the house he was at home. I have no idea if he's still at home. I don't know where he would go, though, if he left the house. He's not with me right now, though." said Mob

"Did he send you here?" asked Shinji opening the door a little more.

"No. I came here on my own." Said Mob

"So he didn't send you to apologize?" asked Shinji

"No. I came here on my own. Well, first I had to look up your address in the student directory and then I came here. Your house is very nice. The outside is a nice shade of white." Said Mob

"…thank you…." Said Shinji after what Mob thought was just a bit too long. Why did he have to think for long? It was just a thank you.

"You're welcome President Kamuro." Said Mob

"Miss Kageyama….why are you here? What could you, possibly, have to apologize for?" asked Shinji opening the door all the way. Mob stared at him for a little too long. He always looked so tired. Old, too, even for a third year. She looked back into his room. It was really dark in there. Smelled awful, too. He closed the door behind him quickly.

Mob thought for a moment. Ritsu did a really bad thing, on accident, so she had to do a really big apology. She decided to kowtow.

"I am truly sorry for what my little brother put you through. I'm sure he just made a mistake. He feels very badly for what he did and I hope that you can look past this and continue to be friends." Said Mob from her position on the ground. His carpet was nice. It smelled awful but it was super plush and soft. It was a nice shade of white, too. This was more of a greyish sort of white. Maybe because it was so dirty.

"Get up! Quickly, before my brother sees!" said Shinji. This would be prime teasing material. Hell, the fact that a girl had come to see him would be prime teasing material.

"Oh. Sorry. I just wanted to apologize the right way. Was it a good apology? Do you forgive Ritsu?" asked Mob

"….he really didn't put you up to this?" asked Shinji

"No. I came here on my own." Said Mob

"Why?" asked Shinji

"Because Ritsu did something wrong and he feels bad about it and I don't want him to lose one of his friends so I came over here to apologize." Said Mob

"But why would you do that for him? Why would you come all the way here, to the home of someone you don't even know, and apologize for something that you didn't even do?" asked Shinji

"Because he's my little brother. I love him and I want him to be happy." Said Mob. Shinji looked at her for a while. She looked at him right back. He had really bad dark circles under his eyes. How did those happen? Oh yeah, from not sleeping.

"I forgive him. Tell him that. Tell him that I forgive him and I hope he forgives me and the first thing we're doing when we get back to school is making it right." Said Shinji after a while.

"I'll tell him that right away. Thank you for having me in your home. Goodbye, Shinji." Said Mob

"Wait! Let me walk you out, Miss Kageyama." Said Shinji. Mob nodded. That was the polite thing to do after all. Shinji always struck her as a person who was very concerned with politeness and rules. She could understand that. Politeness and rules were what made the world make sense.

"You can call me Mob or Shigeko, President Kamuro." Said Mob as she was led down the stairs. She heard a door open behind her and heavy footsteps.

"But you always call me President Kamuro." Said Shinji in a tone that Mob didn't quite get the meaning of.

"Do you want me to just call you Kamuro?" asked Mob

"….Shinji." said Shinji as they reached the door. He made no move to open it for her and she knew that it was bad manners to just go and open the door in another person's house. Not that she had spent much time in other people's houses.

"Ok. I'll call you Shinji. I like that name." said Mob. That was her favorite character from Evangelion. Shinji liked that. He was smiling at her, at least. Mob smiled back to be polite even though she didn't really feel like smiling.

"….I'll call you Shigeko, then. It's a nice name." said Shinji

"Thank you." Said Mob. Finally, he'd call her by her actual name. He still made no move to open the door, though. Did he want to hang out, then?

"Miss, um, Shigeko. Are you busy tomorrow-" started Shinji

"Honestly, you're going to waste her time, too? Why even bother?" asked Takuya as he came down the stairs. Mob knew what a sad face looked like and Shinji looked very sad. His entire face got all scrunched for a moment and now his eyes looked kind of shiny.

"You shouldn't say mean things like that to anyone, especially your little brother. It's wrong to hurt the feelings of others." Said Mob simply. Shinji was a nice person, she decided, and even if he wasn't she wouldn't just stand there and let someone hurt his feelings.

"Shigeko…you don't have to." Said Shinji quietly

"I know that I don't have to, nobody asked me to, but I want to. He shouldn't talk to you like that." Mob. Shinji was looking at her now. So was his brother.

"I know that sounded rude but that's how I feel." Said Mob because, well, she had most likely sounded rude there. But was it rude to defend another person?

She asked Ritsu when she got home. She would have asked Master Reigen but he said that he needed a day or two to recuperate after what happened with Claw. She felt sad about this, sort of, because Master Reigen was her friend and he gave great advice. Ritsu was smart, too, and maybe he could tell her.

He had been less than happy that she had apologized for him. She then apologized for apologizing. He then apologized for making her apologize. She apologized for making him apologize. They went back and forth like that until he felt better. He got kind of weird, though, when she told him about how she had told Shinji's brother to stop being a jerk to him.

Darn. She had been rude, hadn't she?

She apologized to Shinji for being rude to his brother the next day before body improvement club. She hoped that he didn't get on her about wearing her gym uniform inside outside of gym class. That was also a rule in the handbook. He didn't get on her about that, though, but he did look at her kind of weird. Whenever she looked at him while he looked at her he looked away really fast. He also said that she hadn't been rude and that nobody had stood up for him like that ever, not even his parents.

That was a really sad thing. Mob told him that. He looked away from her again when she said that. She wondered why he kept looking away from her. Did she have something on her face? Had someone stuck gum to her again? No, no more gum. Then why was he being like that? She didn't ask in case it was some social thing that she was expected to know. He walked off quickly and suddenly, though. He said that he had important things to do.

He called her Shigeko, too, instead of Miss Kageyama.

The next day he met her during lunch. The whole class got quiet when he came in. Maybe people were still upset over the whole big school cleanup thing.

"Miss Kageyama….Shigeko. Would you like to…join me…for lunch." He didn't look at her while he asked. She hoped that he wasn't going to play a trick on her or anything like that. She usually ate at her desk alone, sometimes with Mezato, but usually alone. Third years never ate with second years, anyway. Sometimes people visited their friends but nobody ever hung out with someone not in their year. Mob decided to go with it. Maybe he was feeling lonely. But then again if he was feeling lonely then he could have eaten with Ritsu. Then again Ritsu liked to eat alone because he liked to do his homework during lunch. Oh, it wasn't a joke then. She was just the next logical choice.

"Ok." Said Mob. She got up, took the bento mom made with her, and followed Shinji out of the silent classroom. The talking picked back up after she left. She followed him down the hall and up the stairs. That was where the third year classrooms were. She had never been up there, before. Oh. It looked just like the second floor. The second floor looked just like the third floor. Did they just copy-paste the floors?

He looked back at her as they walked. She couldn't read his expression.

They walked past all the full classrooms until they came to an empty room at the end of the hall. The student council room. She had never been in there, either.

"Shinji, I can't go in there. It's against the rules. I'm not a student council member." Said Mob

"It's fine, you're with me." Said Shinji. He opened the door for. She took a moment before she stepped a tentative foot inside, and then the other. He closed the door behind them and turned the light on. It was just like all the other rooms. Blackboard at the front of the room, a long table in the middle instead of desks, and a lot of filing cabinets in the back. Ok, maybe not like all the other rooms except for the walls and floors and colors. Did they just copy and paste every room in the entire school? Was that how buildings were designed?

He motioned for her to sit down so she did. He hovered for a bit, bouncing between a seat next to her and a seat across from her. He settled on a seat next to her. She opened her bento box, Sailor Moon, and he opened his, plain blue. They ate for a little while, silence broken only by chopsticks. He did that thing when he looked towards her and then looked away. He did that a lot.

"So….how has your day been?" he asked after a while

"My day's been normal. How have you been?" asked Mob trying to be polite.

"Better, now that you're here with me." Said Shinji looking away from her. He looked a little flushed.

"Are you sick?" asked Mob suddenly. He looked over at her, now.

"No. Why?" asked Shinji

"Because your face is red. Also you keep looking at me and then not looking at me, which is kind of weird I think. Also your hair is shiny and your eyes have dark circles under them. If you're sick I can make you soup. My mom showed me how and Ritsu says that it's pretty good." Said Mob

"….I don't sleep well at night, that's all." He said quietly. Mob frowned. Oh no, did he think that she was being mean? Did she say the wrong thing again?

"I wasn't making fun of you or anything!" said Mob

"I know you aren't." said Shinji

"Oh. Ok. I just wanted to make sure. I don't make fun of people. It's not a nice thing to do." Said Mob

"I know you're not like that, Shigeko." Said Shinji. They ate for a while longer. Her chopsticks began to scrape the bottom of her bento. She looked over at Shinji. He was looking down at his food, now, not at her.

"Did you try tea? Sometimes I drink a cup of tea when I can't sleep. Sleepy time tea, that's what it's called. Not regular tea." Said Mob

"I've tried everything. I don't usually get to sleep until four or five in the morning." Said Shinji still being kind of quiet.

"Oh. When do you have to wake up?" asked Mob

"Seven." Said Shinji

"That's not enough sleep. I think people are supposed to get six to eight hours." Said Mob

"I know that they are, I know." Said Shinji

"Bad dreams?" asked Mob

"…bad reality." Said Shinji

"What's bad about it? Is it anything I can help with?" asked Mob. Were they friends? They were eating together so they must have been. Well, friends helped out friends.

"...you already have." Said Shinji practically whispering.

"Oh. Ok. I don't know what I did but I'm glad I helped." Said Mob

"You put my brother in his place. He hasn't bothered me in days. Thank you, again." Said Shinji

"You're welcome again. I'm still sorry about how rude I was. I just don't understand why people would be mean to one another." Said Mob

He didn't say anything after that. He just ate and Mob ate but then she ran out of food to eat so she just watched him eat. His bento box wasn't as nice as hers, she thought. Mom made her bento for her with Sailor Moon themed food even though she didn't really watch that show anymore. It was still nice of mom, though, so she didn't complain. Shinji's hadn't been themed to anything. It looked like he had made it himself. She wanted to ask him if he had a mom, that would explain him making his own bento, but she didn't because people didn't like personal questions like that right off the bat, Master Reigen had said.

When he finally finished he just looked at her for a while. She looked at him right back. He looked super tired still even though he had just ate. Eating was good for replenishing energy, Master Reigen had said. She felt bad for Shinji. What must it have been like to be that tired? Maybe she could help. She did enjoy helping people.

"If you're tired and you want to nap I can watch the clock and wake you up. You know, because you're tired." Said Mob

"….you're that worried about me?" asked Shinji after a while. He was holding eye contact with her. She wanted to look away but knew that it would be rude. She had trouble making eye contact, she knew that she did, but she also knew that it was polite to keep up eye contact with others.

"Yes." said Mob. She worried about all of her friends, now that she actually had some.

"…thank you but I'll be fine. We should be getting back to our classrooms now, anyway." Said Shinji in a tone that Mob could not read. She still got up though, and after a moment he followed. He walked her all the way back to her classroom even though it was on an entirely different floor. When she got back to her classroom everyone was quiet again. As soon as she sat down at her desk Mezato practically ran over and asked what that had been about. Mob told the truth. Shinji wanted to have lunch with her.

Mob didn't know why Mezato was acting like it was such a big deal. Sometimes friends at lunch together. It wasn't like Mob was incapable of making friends or anything.

Ritsu was just as shocked when she told him. It was dinnertime and at dinnertime the whole family talked about what happened to them that day. Ritsu had interrupted her telling everyone about an exorcism she and Master Reigen went on, Master Reigen had trusted her to do everything but spread the salt by herself which was something she was happy about, tell start asking her a bunch of questions. Mob didn't get why he was asking so many questions but she let him.

Then mom asked her a bunch of questions, too. Like how long she had known Shinji for, what year he was in, if he was nice to her, and more stuff like that.

Dad just said that he wasn't ready for this and changed the subject. What there was to be ready fro Mob did not know.

Ritsu kept asking questions until mom told him to stop being nosy. Then she asked more questions which made her the nosy one, not that Mob would ever call her mother nosey to her face.

Ritsu was quiet after that but later that night he told her to tell him if any guys were bothering her or tried anything with her. She told him that she'd tell him, mostly just so he would let her do her homework before bed. Boys weren't really mean to her, it was usually girls. She was glad about that. Girls just said mean things about you and stuck gum to your uniform at worst. Well, sometimes they lifted up your skirt but that got old fast when they realized that Mob could just keep her skirt down with telekinesis. She was glad that she wasn't a boy, boys beat each other up and stuff. Even if a boy was being mean to her she wouldn't have said anything, Ritsu had beaten up enough people for a lifetime.

The next day went the same as the previous one. She went to class, ate lunch with Shinji, and then finished her day. She saw him on her way out, though. He invited her to sit in on a student council meeting. She declined because she had work that day. He walked her to the door.

He looked less tired, though, so that was different. So the days weren't really the same, then.

He looked less and less tired every day. By the end of the next week she hardly recognized him. When she told him he looked much better he smiled at her, which was nice because she liked it when her friends were happy. He did something weird, though. He reached over and held her hand for a second before pulling away really quick. He excused himself and said that he had to go do important things.

Mob wondered what that was about. She asked Master Reigen and he just hugged her and said that she was growing up. When she asked him what he meant by that he started talking about how little she used to be and how proud he was of her. She went with it, because while he told her about all of this his arm was around her and it made her stomach feel funny, but in a good way. He made her feel like that, sometimes. She didn't know why but she felt like it was something that she should keep to herself.

When she told Ritsu he just got really quiet and then asked if she wanted him to tell Shinji to leave her alone. Mob said no, she liked talking to Shinji. He told her about his life, mostly his troubles. How mean his brother was, how mean his parents were, how he felt like he was bad at everything, how he wondered what the point of it all even was, sometimes. Mob told him that people shouldn't be mean to him, that he was a really good leader, and that the point of it all was that without trying to become a better person then life was super boring and pointless. It was easy to get into a rut, she said, but it was better when you tried new things. She had meant it in the way that she tried new things, joining clubs and all, but he decided to hold her hand.

Oh.

Well, she had held hands with Ritsu before…but Ritsu was her brother.

Still, it wasn't bad. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad.

He took that as his cue to hold his hand whenever he saw her. He held her hand at lunch, when he walked with her after school sometimes, and even that one time he met her at her house before school. Ritsu seemed kind of upset about all of it, she thought. He had been doing his Ritsu look, which he only did when something bothered him. She asked and he just said to tell her if anyone bothered her.

Nobody bothered her, not even to call her 'Bowl-cut' or anything like that. People stopped talking when she walked by, sometimes. That was weird. When she finished walking past there were whispers. She wondered what everyone was whispering about. Maybe it was about her, which was a nice change of pace from being openly mocked.

She wondered why Shinji wanted to hold her hand so much, though. Maybe because he felt so bad about himself. Mob told him every day, because he talked about it every day, that he was a good person and that he was good at things and that he shouldn't feel bad about himself like that. Maybe she wasn't saying it enough. She knew how he felt. Without her powers she wasn't much of anyone. She was just Mob. Plain and boring and awkward.

He said that she wasn't, though. He said that her hair was long and pretty and that her eyes were the color of chocolate. He said that she was the nicest person he had ever met. He said that she was really sweet, too. Then he held her hand for a really long time and just looked at her. She looked at him back and he leaned into her personal space for a second before pulling back. It was nice, she decided, having a boy so close to her. It made her insides feel funny. Not funny like when she was with Master Reigen. This was a different sort of funny, like she drank two of those giant energy drinks with the lightning bolts on them back to back.

After that he held her hand less. He was always kind of red when he was around her, which made her worry because that meant that maybe he wasn't sleeping again. When she asked he just thanked her for worrying about him. He got really quiet, too, and when they got to her classroom he didn't immediately get going to his, so she stuck around to see if he wanted to talk to her or something. He mostly just looked down at his shoes for a while. Mob checked her phone. Classes would start soon and she knew how he worried about attendance and grades and stuff.

"There's a student council meeting today. I was wondering if you would like to….to join me? And then we could….do something…..afterwards." said Shinji. He looked super red when he said that. Maybe she should take him to the nurse….

"Ok." Said Mob. It wasn't a work day or a club day, well a Body Improvement Club day. Telepathy club met every day but Tome told her to spend as much time with Shinji as she could. Mob would but not to do Tome's plan of buttering him up, not literally, to get the Telepathy Club taken off the suspect club list.

"Thank you Miss K-Shigeko." Said Shinji. He held onto her hand again and did that thing where he got into her space. She was going to ask him what that was all about when her teacher walked up to them and cleared his throat. Shinji jumped back and gave her a handshake before he left. Mob shook back, wondering what that was about, before her teacher told her to take her seat. She did and tried, and failed to pay attention.

Why did she like it when he was in her space? Was it him specifically or did she just like it when people got into her space. Well, not when Tome grabbed her or shook her or dragged her, and it was different from when Ritsu hugged her or they slept next to each other when they felt lonely or sat really close when they watched something scary or emotional on TV. It was nice when Master Reigen got in her space, though. When he grabbed her or dragged her or just rested his arm around her shoulders it was nice. Maybe she just liked it when boys were in her space. Ritsu didn't count as a boy because brothers weren't boys, they were just brothers.

Mob thought more on the subject of weird feelings as she sat through class. She concluded that this was something best left to Googling later as it didn't seem like something that she could ask Master Reigen about. It just felt too…personal…maybe? She suspected that it might have been a health class sort of thing. They said that adolescence was a time of new and confusing feelings towards the opposite sex. Or maybe she was just weird. That could have been it, too. She was a really weird person.

She felt even more weird, and very out of place too, as she sat through a student council meeting. Technically non members weren't allowed but Shinji was president and his word was law, he had said. She just sat in the back with some manga. She could feel the student council secretary, Hanako, looking at her. She was narrowing her eyes like she was mad. Mob thought about what she could have done and drew a blank. Maybe Hanako was just mad about something else and was looking in Mob's direction. She hoped that Hanako calmed down soon, people kept having to remind her to take the minutes of the meeting. Minutes meant a transcript of everything that was said, not the time minutes. Mob had been confused for a moment before Googling the word. Ritsu would have told her but he was busy. Well, sort of bust. He was looking back at her a lot, too.

After the meeting he got his stuff together really slowly. Mob said hi to him and he asked her what she was doing there. She told him that Shinji invited her and that they were going to hang out afterwards. Ritsu looked kind of bothered then and asked Mob what they were planning on doing. Mob said that she had no idea but invited Ritsu along. Shinji said that Ritsu was probably too busy to come along. Ritsu said that he wasn't. Shinji said that he was. They had tones, there, and Mob didn't get it but the entire thing ended in her and Shinji drinking soda in Ankle Park. Onigawara had wanted to do this with her too. It was nice, she could see why people hung out here. She did wish that Ritsu could have come but Shinji said that he was probably too busy. Mob agreed. Ritsu was always super busy, plus he had been sort of weird since the whole Claw thing. Lately it had been like he was always bothered by something.

Shinji said that he had been weird lately, too, but he just figured that it was because of all that awful stuff they did together. Mob agreed, Ritsu was probably still guilty. After Mob said this Shinji got super quiet again.

"Do you hold it against me? What I did?" he asked softly

"No. You just made a mistake, that's all. You said that you were sorry and you meant it so that's what matters. Don't feel like a bad person, Shinji, because you aren't a bad person at all." Said Mob

"You mean that?" asked Shinji in a tone that she couldn't place. She had never had anyone talk to her like that, before.

"Of course I do, I don't tell lies." Said Mob. Shinji was quiet again and she took this time to finish her soda. Carbonated milk. Not bad, not bad at all. There was a promotion on the can. Every hundredth can was a winner. She looked inside to empty can to see if she had won. Nope. She put the can down and turned around. What she hadn't noticed was that Shinji was in her space again. As she turned she ended up bumping heads with him. That was embarrassing enough but as she pulled away they, for half a second, kissed.

Mob wanted to dig a hole, crawl into it, and bury herself alive. In a million years they'd find her and she'd still be embarrassed.

"Sorry!" said Mob. She scooted away from him so quickly she ended up falling off the bench they were sitting on. She caught herself with her powers. Shinji stared at her.

"So it is true…." Said Shinji as he stared at her. Mob held her braids down with her hands. Her hair was always the first thing to act up when her powers got like this.

"I'm so sorry that I bumped into you and I accidentally…kissed….you…and that my powers are being like this!" said Mob. She must have been red as a tomato based on how warm her face was. She was amazed that her body had any blood left in the rest of it for her heart to be beating so fast. She looked down at the ground. It looked like the grass had even gotten a little higher under her.

"No, it's alright. I'm not upset at all." Said Shinji. Mob could feel him looking at her but she didn't look back at him. He probably didn't want to be friends anymore. How could she have done something so embarrassing?

"I'm still super sorry. Can we just pretend that…that never happened?" asked Mob calming down enough to look at him. She resisted the urge to reach up and feel her lips. So that was what it was like…she liked it. It was nice to know what it was like, not that it would ever happen again. She was not the sort of girl that boys kissed on purpose. She knew that. It didn't bother her, not really. Just a fact of her life. She was Mob and boys did not look twice at her.

"You're right, that wasn't very good. Alright, I can do that Miss Ka-Shigeko." Said Shinji. Mob nodded. Well wasn't that a relief. Shinji was such a very good friend that he didn't even hold her against her when she messed up socially in a serious way. He was up there with Tome now, in terms of friends.

Mob decided that this was nice, the whole having a very good friend thing. Why else would Shinji be holding her hand and spending time with her? Mezato thought that Shinji liked her. Of course he did, they were friends. Tome accused her of sleeping with the enemy and then laughed when Mob asked what that meant. Mob got up and wanted to leave but then Tome grabbed her hand and said sorry. Then she explained that now that Shinji liked her she could get him to do anything, like, say, taking the telepathy club off the list of suspect clubs. Mob said no, she would never use friendship for her own gain. That wasn't a nice thing to do at all and Mob knew that she had to be a nice person.

She wasn't sure why Tome and Mezato kept saying 'like' like that, either.

She had been Shinji's friend for two and a half weeks. She liked it but for some reason Ritsu didn't. He said that Shinji 'liked' her, and he said it weird like Tome and Mezato did. He got really quiet, too, when he asked if she liked Shinji back.

"Of course I do." Was what Mob had said. She saw the look on Ritsu's face. He got kind of sad, she thought, before he got mad.

"Fine! I don't even know why I care!" he had said. Mob tried to hug him but he just stomped off to his room and slammed the door. She didn't get it, not at all, and when she tried to ask he just told her that she could do whatever she wanted. She didn't hear from him again until later that night.

"Sister?" he asked. It was after bedtime. Well, not that they still had an official bedtime complete with first class tickets on the mom and dad tuck in express or anything, but it was at the usual time they went to bed. Mob missed the tuck in express sometimes but she knew that she was fourteen and fourteen was too old to have mom and dad tuck you in. Maybe Ritsu missed being tucked in, too. It did get lonely sleeping all by yourself.

"Brother?" asked Mob

"I'm sorry, for yelling at you I mean." Said Ritsu

"It's ok. I'm sorry for whatever I did to make you yell." Said Mob. She had probably done something wrong, as usual. Why couldn't she just be more…better? Like everyone else. Now Ritsu was all upset because she made him yell.

"That's the thing….you didn't do anything." Said Ritsu

"I must have done something to upset you, otherwise you wouldn't have yelled." Said Mob

"No sister I was just…I don't know. Can I ask you something?" asked Ritsu before sitting on her bed. Mob sat up and scooted so that she was sitting across from him. They faced each other in the day, only their auras for light. Well, Mob's mostly. Bubblegum pink and electric blue. Ritsu's was there too, a faint glimmer of navy blue in the sea of Mob's aura. They used to sit like this when they were kids, but without Ritsu's aura being visible.

"You can but you just did. You can ask me something else, though." said Mob simply. Ritsu got really quiet and started playing with her pink baby kitten blanket. She fiddled with it too, it was really soft for something from the discount store.

"….how did you know you liked him?" asked Ritsu after a long while. He stopped playing with her blanket but he still held it in his hands. He wasn't looking at her. She dipped her head lower to see his face. He looked kind of bothered.

"I never disliked him so I guess is started to be friends with him when he started hanging out with me." Said Mob simply, her head still tipped low so that she could see her brother. What was bothering him?

"No, sister, I mean….when did you realize that you wanted to be his girlfriend?" asked Ritsu after an even longer while.

"I'm not his girlfriend." Said Mob simply. Why would she be anyone's girlfriend? Girlfriends were pretty and popular. They were girls like Tsubomi, not girls like Mob.

"You don't have to lie to me." Said Ritsu looking up and making eye contact with her.

"I'm not lying. I'm not Shinji's girlfriend." Said Mob. If he considered her to be his girlfriend then he would have said something. He didn't even confess to her. When you liked someone like that then you were supposed to confess properly.

"Then why is he always holding your hand?" asked Ritsu

"That's what friends do sometimes. I hold your hand sometimes, too." Said Mob simply. Ritsu stared at her for a moment.

"….we're brother and sister…" said Ritsu slowly.

"We are. We have the same parents." Said Mob said Mob simply. She was pretty sure that neither of them were adopted, mom had pictures of when she was pregnant with both of them. Mom did sometimes yell and say that the hospital gave her the wrong daughter, but dad said that she was just upset and that it wasn't true.

"So you don't….you don't like Shinji?" asked Ritsu. She knew that look, it was hopeful. She could tell by the eyes. Her eyes looked like that, sometimes, when Master Reigen imparted wisdom on her and she caught sight of herself in the mirror after they were done talking.

"I like him." said Mob simply. He was a nice enough person and she didn't dislike him so then that meant that she liked him. He said 'like' in a weird way, though.

"So then you are his girlfriend?" asked Ritsu almost loudly enough to wake mom and dad.

"No." said Mob

"But you do like him?" asked Ritsu

"Yes. We're friends." Said Mob. Ritsu stared at her for a few moments. Mob stared back. He opened his mouth a few times like he was going to say something but kept on changing his mind.

"Sister….he wants to be more than friends with you." Said Ritsu after a long while.

"Oh. I didn't know that." Said Mob with a blink. Her powers even acted up, her hair stood up around her. She smoothed it back down. Shinji wanted to be more than friends? Why? With her? It must have been true, Ritsu said so.

"I know….I know you didn't know." Said Ritsu

"I'll tell him tomorrow that I'm not his girlfriend. I can't believe I misread the atmosphere so badly." Said Mob, her face red. Her aura began to churn more violently. She was so, totally, clueless sometimes.

"I'll talk to him for you, sister." Said Ritsu

"No, I should. I'm the one who can't get a clue." Said Mob

"Don't talk that way. He's the one who can't get a clue." Said Ritsu. Mob shook her head. It was her, it was always her.

Ritsu went back to his room and Mob was up half the night thinking. Her brain would just not shut up. She ended up floating halfway to the ceiling because she was so deep in thought? Shinji liked her? He liked her liked her? But why? What could he see in her? She was plain and boring looking. She even still looked like an elementary schooler. She still wore an undershirt for crying out loud! What had the other girls said while they were changing for gym class? Oh yeah. They called her a carpenter's dream because she was flat as a board and needed a screw. She knew what flat as a board meant. She poked herself in the chest. Not totally flat but still nothing close to the other girls, even the first years. Boys didn't like the Mobs of the world, they liked the Tsubomis.

The thought of a boy liking her did make her smile, though. She smiled and her heart started to beat faster and her powers acted up. She liked boys, well the idea of them. She didn't have any specific boy she liked. Well, not a living breathing non fictional flesh and blood boy, anyway. She never even let herself think about boys that way. It wasn't like any boy could ever like her even if she did like him back. She knew the kinds of girls that boys liked and she wasn't that. That was why she couldn't even think about liking a boy or having a boy like her back.

That was why she'd have to tell Shinji that she didn't like him back and that she had no idea that she was even his girlfriend.

Mob got a slow start the next morning, having been up all night thinking and all. She got up so late that Ritsu was already gone. She checked the time. It wasn't that late, he must have had something to do in the morning at school. He was always super busy like that. She got to school by herself, it wasn't one of those mornings where Shinji waited for her. He didn't meet her at the gates either. This wasn't good. The longer she went without telling him that she wasn't his girlfriend the longer thoughts about how, well, she might have wanted to be….someone's….girlfriend stayed in her mind. No. She couldn't even let herself think like that. She couldn't get her hopes up that she would meet the perfect boy, the kind of boy that she had always wanted, and then he would like her back and want to hold hands and maybe even kiss.

Shinji wasn't that boy, that perfect boy that she pictured even though she shouldn't. He was nice, though, when he wanted to be. He liked spending time with her, too, and even sought out her presence. Plus he might have already liked her….

Maybe being Shinji's girlfriend might not have been a bad thing….but then again she wasn't in love with him. She knew what love was supposed to be like, romance was her favorite genre after all, and what she felt wasn't love…right?

But then again she had no idea what love was like. Besides, anime and manga weren't totally reflective of real life…probably.

In the end she didn't have to really do anything. There was another note in her shoebox this time not from Ongawara. Oh. It was from Shinji.

"Dear Miss Kageyama, although I have enjoyed our time together I think that it would be best if we did not continue to see each other in a romantic capacity. –President Kamuro." Read Mob to herself. Oh. Well at least she didn't have to reject him….

She felt like here was a rock in her stomach.

It didn't go away when class started.

It didn't go away when class ended.

Lunch time just made it worse.

After school didn't ease the heaviness.

Body Improvement Club only distracted her for a little bit.

The walk home brought back the heaviness and introduced a new feeling of tightness in her chest.

Work just brought it all to a head. As soon as she sat down and Master Reigen asked her how her day was the tears started. Then her powers acted up. Then the room, literally, got turned upside down.

"Bad day?" asked Master Reigen just as calm as ever. He never got freaked out when she did stuff like this. He understood her. He said, back when they first met, that he had been troubled as a kid too. He must have known what it was like. What it all was like.

"I'm sorry, Master. I'll fix it." Said Mob as the tears stopped. She quickly but the room back to the way it was supposed to be. When she finished Master Reigen went to the door and put the closed sign up.

"Master?" asked Mob as he stood in front of her desk. She wiped the last of the tears from her eyes.

"Come on, let's get some takoyaki, Mob. You look like you need it." Said Master Reigen

"But what about the clients?" asked Mob

"Nobody ever died of a bad back. Come on, I'm starving!" said Master Reigen. Mob smiled and joined him as he walked out the door. He reached over and put an arm over her. They walked like that until they got to the takoyaki place. He got them a double portion and they sat across from each other at their usual table.

"So, bad day?" asked Master Reigen as he picked up a takoyaki. Mob spun it around with her powers to cool it down for him.

"Yes." said Mob simply

"Want to talk about it?" asked Reigen

"No." said Mob. She didn't even know why she was upset. Probably because she had opened herself up to the idea of someone actually liking her like that.

"Come on, Mob, maybe it's something that I can help with." Said Master Reigen. Maybe he could help her with how she felt. He was really good at making people feel better. Maybe that was what spiritual powers were, making people feel better.

"Here." Said Mob handing him the note from her pocket. He read it and his eyebrows raised up to high Mob feared that they could get stuck like that.

"Damn….I'm sorry, Mob. These things always suck, I won't sugar coat it, but you'll get better." Said Master Reigen. He reached across the table and took her hand. For a moment Mob forgot how to breathe.

"I don't know why I'm so upset. I didn't even know that I was, that he thought that I was, his girlfriend until Ritsu told me last night." Said Mob

"What's your little brother got to do with this?" asked Master Reigen

"Shinji is his friend and he told me that Shinji liked me even though I didn't know that he liked me. Then he said that he would talk to Shinji for me but I told him not to and I was going to apologize today for making him think that I was his girlfriend when I found this in my shoe locker. I don't know why I feel like this, Master. It's like I miss him and I didn't even know how much I would. I mean….I liked spending time with him and all the times he would hold my hand and even the time we kissed on accident…" said Mob with a blush.

"Mob, listen….uh….sometimes things aren't meant to be. You're only in middle school and, yeah, it hurts but you have your whole entire life to meet someone." Said Master Reigen. He muttered something that sounded a lot like _'and maybe your brother won't chase him off'_ but Mob wasn't sure so she didn't respond to that part.

"I don't. Master, nobody would want to be my boyfriend." Said Mob

"It sure seems like someone did, at least for a little bit. Stop being so down on yourself, Mob. You're a great kid." Said Reigen

"I'm not pretty and I'm weird." Said Mob

"You can be a little weird, sure, but you're also a genuinely nice person. You've got a wonderful personality and I happen to think that you're very pretty." Said Master Reigen. Mob looked up at him. She felt her face coloring red. She couldn't stop looking at him. He thought that she was pretty?

"You mean it?" asked Mob. Master Reigen smiled and nodded.

"You're a very pretty girl, Mob, and I bet that you'll find another guy pretty soon. You've just got to put yourself out there. Don't let this minor setback keep you down, Mob. You've got this!" said Master Reigen. He let go of her hand and got to eating. She wished that he hadn't.

Yeah. He was right. He thought that she was pretty and had a wonderful personality and he would never, ever, lie to her. He had a wonderful personality, too. He could always make her smile. He was nice looking, too. She liked light hair, she decided, and blue eyes. The bluest eyes she had ever seen.

If she ever had a boyfriend she wished that he could be just like Master Reigen.


	3. Musashi Goda

It all started with running.

Mob had gotten over the feeling of having a rock in her stomach. Not literally, it was just kind of hurtful, being dumped. She didn't literally eat a rock. That would have been a weird thing to do. She had been broken up with and she hadn't even realized that she had been in a relationship to begin with. It hurt.

It was hard but her friends were really nice about it. Mezato offered to print an expose about all the awful stuff that the student council did as revenge but Mob said no. That was mean and Shinji did feel really bad about what he had done. Also Mezato had told her before that the school paper was a hard hitting journalist endeavor, not a tabloid, so nothing sensationalistic like that. It was important to respect the integrity of the printed word, Mezato had told her.

Tome offered to get the telepathy club to beat Shinji up for her. Mob said no to that, too, because fighting was wrong and stupid. The telepathy club boys seemed happy about that, too. Lots of relieved sighs, well they sounded relieved to her, anyway. Tome said that she would do it herself with a pillow case full of doorknobs. Mob talked her out of it. Thank goodness that Tome tended to be lazy and decided to put her plans on hold once Mob told her that it would be a lot of trouble borrowing enough doorknobs for a whole pillowcase and then putting them all back where they belonged when she was done. You had to appeal to a person's sense of reason, Master Reigen had taught her, so she appealed to Tome's laziness when it came to everything terrestrial. Extra-terrestrials were a whole other matter entirely.

The entire Body Improvement club had told Mob that they were sorry about what happened.

Especially Onigawara. He asked her if she was ok a lot. If she missed Shinji, if she was sad about what happened, who broke it off, stuff like that. She said that she felt kind of sad but she was mostly fine. He asked her, too, if she missed hanging out with him. She said yes, because it was nice, and then he said something kind of weird.

"I'd ask you to hang out again but, you know, your brother…" he had said. Mob was sort of confused. Of course she knew her brother. They were siblings, they knew everything about each other. Well, ok, some siblings didn't get along like Onigawara and his brother or Shinji and his brother. Maybe it was just brothers who didn't get along. Boys did fight a lot, even Ritsu. Oh no. Was Ritsu fighting again?

Onigawara said that Ritsu and him hadn't fought. Mob was relieved. She didn't want anyone to fight, especially her little brother. Then he told her, again, that he was sorry about what happened with Shinji and that he was always there…and he just sort of trailed off just like that. That's rough was a platitude, Master Reigen taught her about those. Words that you had to say because something bad had happened to someone you knew.

"That's rough, Kageyama." Was the most common platitude she got. This was followed by more assurances that breakups were hard and that everyone went through it. It seemed like everyone in the body improvement club had a story about being broken up with by a girl. That was why, in first year, they had a no girls allowed rule. That rule was stricken when Musashi became president because it was discriminatory and immature. Girls may not have been as strong as guys but they could still improve their bodies…then he started backtracking and saying 'not like that' over and over again. Like what Mob did not know. She did, however, know that she was grateful to have such nice and supportive friends. President Musashi was especially nice to her, then, because he said that he knew her pain. He told her that it was hard but the best thing to do was to fight on. No pain no gain. You just had to fight through the pain and run so fast that it couldn't catch up to you.

So that was just what Mob did.

Every day she ran. She ran and she ran until she outran the rock in her stomach, what was left of it anyway. It didn't last as much as she thought it would, the hurt. She still kept up running even as the hurt passed, it was good for her heart. As a direct consequence of this she could keep up with the others a little better. They at least weren't small dots heading off into the distance anymore. Everyone was still faster than her, even at a jogging pace, but that was ok because it wasn't about being the fastest, it was about doing a little better each time.

That was what Mob told herself, anyway.

It was sort of lonely running alone, sometimes. She sometimes wished that Onigawara would run with her again but he didn't. Everyone had to run at the pace that was best for them, that way they could improve better. Running slowly was like playing a game on easy mode, you didn't really gain anything.

Still, Mob wished that she didn't run so slowly.

She knew that they were supposed to jog, always jog, but she broke into a sprint one day. She just wanted to catch up to the others, that was all, because it was so lonely and boring running all by herself. She managed to catch up to the others by sprinting.

"Kageyama! You caught up!" that was president Musashi. He patted her on the back as she ran. She tried to say thank you but all that came out was a wheeze. He slowed down and the rest of the group followed his lead.

"Slow down! You're pushing yourself too hard too fast!" he said. Mob shook her head. She could run just as well as the rest of them. She just needed to fight on, that was all.

"Fight…on….fight…on…" wheezed Mob. She was starting to get dizzy, maybe she should have drank more water. She still fought on, though, even though everyone said that she was pushing herself too hard. That was the only way to make progress, to fight on. One day she'd be just as fast and as strong as the rest of the body improvement club. One day she'd be able to run fast and lift heavy things and do a pull-up and….

And run without passing out. That would be a great place to start.

Mob came back to reality in the club room. She had been laid down on a gym mat. There was a towel under her head as a pillow. Someone had taken her shoes off and put them beside her. The room was empty. The Telepathy Club had gone to karaoke and the body improvement club was outside. Wait, no. She could hear someone groaning. She sat up and opened her eyes.

"Kageyama, you're alive!" said Musashi as he let go of the pull up bar. Mob tried to stand but ended up falling into a sitting position.

"What happened?" asked Mob as she decided to take a minute for her head to stop swimming. Musashi handed her a water bottle. Mob tried to undo the cap herself. The seal was still unopened and Mob wasn't feeling very strong right then.

"You passed out." Said Musashi. He took the water bottle from her and undid the cap. He handed it back to her and she took a big swig.

"Not too much, you just came to. You're going to make yourself throw up." Said Musashi. He patted her on the back. She nodded and drank more slowly.

"I'm sorry I passed out. I didn't mean to cause you any trouble." Said Mob after she finished drinking. She felt bad, she had tried too much too soon and troubled others.

"It was not trouble. Just don't push yourself like that. You could really get hurt." Said Musashi

"But I thought that we were supposed to fight on." Said Mob

"We are, but you should also be careful not to do too much too soon." Said Musashi

"I know. I just didn't like running all by myself." Said Mob

"I'll have everyone slow down a little, then. It's unfair to expect you to catch up. You're only, what, 150 centimeters tall? Your strides are much shorter." Said Musashi

"I'm 153 centimeters tall." Said Mob

"That's still shorter than the rest of us. We'll slow down for you, don't worry." Said Musashi. Mob wanted to tell him not to, that she could fight on with the rest of them, but she didn't want to run alone. That was so terribly selfish, wasn't it?

In the end she said nothing and let everyone slow down, just a little. Well, only for a day. At the end of that day everyone said that they were sorry and that they weren't used to having a girl in the group, that was why they had let her fall behind. Mob didn't want everyone to slow down just because she was a girl. It made her feel bad, like she was somehow less…capable…if that was the word. She asked Master Reigen about it later. Maybe she was just being weird.

"Well that's kind of a grey area, Mob. On the one hand you're the least athletic kid in your club, so maybe everyone should slow down. On the other hand the fact that you're a girl has nothing to do with how athletic you are." Said Master Reigen

"I'm short, too, so maybe that has something to do with it." Said Mob

"You're not that short, Mob, but yeah. Don't push yourself, that's how you end up with sore muscles." Said Reigen

"Sometimes I get sore after I work out but it's not that bad." Said Mob

"Don't forget to stretch. Mob, seriously. The people I have coming in here, I swear. With the last lady it was like ironing out tennis balls with my bare hands. Ugh, I'm still sore." Said Master Reigen. He was really tired looking, he was always really tired looking after he rubbed someone's back. His tie was lose and his suit coat was off. He unbutton the top two of his buttons. He was all sweaty looking, too.

Mob was staring. She looked away.

Sweat was gross. What was with her? Why did she care if Master Reigen was all tired and sweaty looking?

She looked down and started on some homework. Master Reigen was still talking to her. He was telling her that she could do just fine in club even if she was a girl and kind of short and out of shape. He was telling her that it wasn't the journey it was the destination. Then he backtracked and said that the journey of a thousand miles began with the first step. Then he went off on a tangent about how she should never, ever, start smoking because once you started it was a journey that you couldn't stop. Then he lit a cigarette.

The whole time Mob tried not to stare at him. Sometimes she stared at nothing but this was not one of those times.

He leaned back as he talked, his cigarette dangling from his fingers. She knew that smoking was a bad habit but she had never really minded his smoking. He looked sort of…cool…like that. But smoking was wrong and she of course would heed her master's advice and never start. She wondered why he started, though, if it was bad for you. She didn't ask, though, she just listened to him talk.

She always listened to him talk.

The more she listened the more she wanted to hear. His voice, the way he sat, the way he was, how shiny he looked. Mob wanted to stare, she wanted to but she didn't. She could feel it, it was almost instinctive, that if she stared at Master Reigen the way she wanted to stare at him it would be a different and weird sort of staring and maybe she shouldn't look at him in that.

In what way she didn't understand. Not understanding made her think and thinking made her overthink. She overthought so much that by the time the one sided conversation and workday ended she was ready to run out of there like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs. There was a nervousness to the way she felt, she had decided, and that was what made it so…weird. Like a giddy sort of nervousness. Kind of like getting a mystery flavor iced pop and hoping that it's something good but you're too afraid to lick it because it might be something you don't like but then it starts to melt and your hand gets all sticky.

It was like that.

Mob wasn't used to it so, as Master Reigen had taught her, sometimes you have to run away. So she did. She ran all the way home. It was good for the heart. Cardio was very good for your heart. She ran all the way up to her room when she got home, too, because she just felt like running. Anything to get rid of this new, nervous, sort of energy. She had just closed her door and thrown herself onto her futon when she heard a knock.

"Sister, are you ok?" asked Ritsu. Right. They didn't really close their doors that often. Was she ok? Pretty ok. Nothing she wanted to discuss with her little brother, anyway.

"I'm fine, brother. What's up?" asked Mob as she laid down with her eyes closed. She watched the colors dance behind her closed eyelids. What was up with those, anyway?

"You ran up the stairs and slammed the door. Did something happen? Are you sure you're ok?" asked Ritsu

"I didn't slam it." Said Mob

"Closed it loudly, then." Said Ritsu

"I'm fine." Said Mob

"Are you sure? Nobody's trying to bother you again, are they?" asked Ritsu in a tone she could not read.

"Nobody's picked on me in a while, Ritsu, ok? I'm fine, just tired from running. We've been doing a lot of cardio in club lately. It's good for your heart." Said Mob

"...it's all guys in body improvement club, right?" asked Ritsu after a moment. Mob nodded before remembering that he was outside of her closed door.

"Yes. They're really nice." Said Mob

"….and nobody bothers you, right?" asked Ritsu

"No, of course not. Well it sort of bothers me when they said that they'd slow down for now on because I'm a girl. Master Reigen says that it doesn't matter that I'm a girl. It matters more that I'm short and I don't exercise. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step and it's not the journey it's the destination." Said Mob

"….what…? Never mind." Said Ritsu. He also muttered something that sounded like 'Who cares what Reigen has to say' but Mob didn't say anything because she might have misheard him. He was standing on the other side of her door after all.

"Tell me if anyone else bothers you, ok?" said Ritsu after a while. There was a moment of silence.

"Ok. If someone bothers me I'll tell you." Said Mob. She then asked him how student council was going. He got super quiet and said that everything was fine. Normal. She asked after Shinji, too, because she knew how he had a hard time with stuff. How was he carrying on?

"He's fine, sister." Was all that Ritsu said. Mob figured that he would know, being Shinji's friend and all. Mob wasn't his sort of girlfriend anymore so maybe she shouldn't be so concerned. She wasn't sure, rules could be sort of complicated sometimes. They would have kept talking but mom said that they were being annoying and to talk in the same room already.

So they did. Ritsu asked about club a lot. How she was doing, what they did, if any of the guys ever bothered her. Mob had already told him a thousand times that nobody was picking on her but he just didn't listen. He worried about her like that. He shouldn't worry himself so much. He had a lot of his own things in his own life to worry about. Of course Ritsu didn't see it that way.

Mob wondered why he worried about her so much. He was her little brother and it was his job to worry, he had said, but she was older so she had to worry about him. He never gave her any reason to worry. He had stopped beating people up so aside from that he never did anything bad or dangerous. Neither did she, of course, but he didn't see it that way. She'd just have to find out a way to get him to see it her way.

Getting people to see things her way was hard, she decided. It took a whole lap around the school to convince the club to run at their own regular paces. She didn't need special consideration just because she was a girl. She could fight on just as well as anyone else. So she did. She fought on and fought on until her muscles, what little muscles she had, were sore. She didn't pass out, though, so that was a victory for her. Getting back into her school uniform and getting to work, though, was another story.

The human body didn't much care for going from running mode to walking mode. Once running mode ended the body wanted to go into rest mode. That was why it was so hard to drag herself back into her clothes and get to work. She always changed in the bathroom, it was just easier than waiting for the boys to finish up in the club room. She didn't mind, though, even though Tome called it being 'exiled'. It didn't bother Mob, though. Tome said, though, that she wished that they could just 'forget' that she was there. That would have just been embarrassing to Mob to be forgotten about in a room when a bunch of boys started changing. The only boy she had ever seen undressed had been her brother and that was when they were super little.

Tome said that the body improvement club was wasted on her.

Then she said that she wasn't talking about Mob's lack of athletic prowess.

Mob didn't get it. What was the point of the body improvement club if not to improve your body? Mob chewed on this as she walked, slowly, away from school. Comradery, maybe? Yes, comradery was important. She was making so many new friends. Everyone was so nice, nicest guys in school people said. She wondered why Ritsu always thought that she was being made fun of. Nobody would ever make fun of her there. Improvement couldn't happen if people felt bad about themselves. Everyone was very nice and maybe if Ritsu joined them, not that he ever had the time, he could see it too.

It would be nice to spend more time with him. They were getting farther apart, maybe, because they were getting older. It wasn't a good feeling, getting farther apart from someone you loved. Not that she was getting very far. Walking was painful. She heard some footsteps getting closer. Heavy ones.

"Kageyama! You alright?" asked Musashi as he came jogging up to her.

"Yes. I'm fine. I just fought on too hard." Said Mob as she limped along.

"You don't have to push yourself so hard." Said Musashi

"I know, but I want to. I like to fight on. That's why I joined, to improve." Said Mob

"We shouldn't have left you behind, though. Sorry about that…" said Musashi trailing off. Mob wondered what that was about.

"I don't mind. Don't slow down for me just because I'm a girl." Said Mob

"No! It wasn't about that! You just said that you didn't like running alone!" said Musashi

"I don't, you're right, but it's my responsibility to keep up with the others." Said Mob. She didn't mean anything by that besides what it sounded like. Too many layers to talk, much too many layers. Judging by the silence Musashi was reading into it. Master Reigen said that if it took people a long time to respond to what you said they were chewing on it. Not literally. Mob wondered what there was in what she said to chew on.

"You're very serious about this, aren't you?" said Musashi

"Of course I am." Said Mob once again stating a fact. There was another long silence as they walked along. Mob to work and Musashi probably to either his parent's house or his granny's house out in the country that he talked about sometimes. Huh. Mob didn't know that it was all on the same path. The silence was broken by, what some would call, rambling. Not that Mob minded. She liked it when people talked a lot. It meant that she got to talk a lot less.

Musashi told her about how in the past the girls that tried to join never stuck it out and were only there for one reason. What the reason was Mob did not know but she said nothing. People liked to be heard so she listened. He told her about how no girl had ever stuck it out as much as she did and that he admired her for that. He also said that he admired how she stuck to training even after she got her heart broken and that how most people would have just wallowed in sadness. He said that he admired her a lot. Mob wasn't super sure what there was to admire in sticking to what she said that she was going to do but she went with it. She knew to accept a compliment even if you didn't get it.

She mostly nodded and said 'uh-huh' a lot. She knew that when people had a lot to say it was best to just let them say it, and man oh man did he have a lot to say. Mostly about different ways to stretch so she wouldn't end up hurting herself, after he was done telling her how awesome it was that she stuck it out for this long. There were a lot of different stretches and Mob was trying to commit everything to memory. She was so focused on listening that she didn't even cut him off when they got to her job.

"So…yeah…just don't over extend!" said Musashi after they had been standing in front of Spirits and Such for about five minutes. Mob was going off the movement of the sun, not her phone. Pulling her phone out would have been rude. Not that she was the best at judging the position of the sun either.

"Ok. I'll try to remember everything you said. You might need to repeat some of it, though. It was a lot." Said Mob

"Right! Sorry! I just lost track of the time I guess. You're an easy person to talk to, Kageyama." Said Musashi

"Thank you. You're an easy person to listen to. You have a lot of interesting things to say." Said Mob. He looked away from her when she said this. Had she said the wrong thing?

"We could…that is if you wanted to…you could join me on my morning jog…sometimes. That is if you want to, Kageyama." Said Musashi. Mob nodded.

"I'd like that. That way I can improve faster and keep up with the rest of you guys better." Said Mob

"Really? Great. I'll try to run by your house at about five-ish?" said Musashi

"Ok. Let me text you my address, that way you don't have to look through the student directory." Said Mob. She pulled out her phone and sent him her address quickly. He seemed really happy about all of this, she knew how to read happiness. He must have really liked running. She did too, but not the part where your body decided to make all of your muscles hurt afterwards.

"Ok, tomorrow at five. I'll see you then, Kageyama." Said Musashi. Mob frowned a little. She didn't much like being referred to by her family name by anyone other than teachers. At least he wasn't putting a Miss in front of it like she was an adult or something.

"You can call me Mob if you want, or Shigeko, but only my parents and my little brother call me Shigeko." Said Mob

"Ok. Mob then. See you tomorrow!" said Musashi before he ran off. Mob gave him a little wave and then walked through the door and up to work. She heard what sounded like crashing as she opened the door.

Master Reigen was typing really fast at his computer. The books on his desk her on the floor. Mob gathered them up and put them the way they were with her powers. She closed the blinds, too. They were letting a lot of sunlight in.

"Oh, hey Mob. I didn't see you come in." said Master Reigen as he continued typing really fast.

"Oh. Sorry. I didn't mean to sneak up on you. Was that why all your books were on the floor?" asked Mob

"Huh? That? No, that was just um...I'm not sure how that happened exactly. So, tell me, how was your day?" asked Master Reigen

"Fine." Said Mob

"Nothing out of the ordinary happened? Nothing you'd want to share with your master?" asked Master Reigen

"Today I saw a really bluebird on my walk to school." Said Mob

"Anything else?" asked Master Reigen

"Tome says that she saw a UFO but I think that it's just another nighttime airplane." Said Mob sitting down at her desk.

"That's all that happened today?" asked Master Reigen

"President Musashi, he's president of the body improvement club, walked with me to work today. We're going for a run together tomorrow, too, at five. That's in the morning, not at night, so I shouldn't stay up too late." Said Mob. Master Reigen smiled at her and leaned back in his chair really far. Mob held it with her powers so he wouldn't end up tipping over and hurting himself.

"See? I told you getting dumped wasn't the end of the world. Way to get back up on that horse, Mob. When I was your age..." said Master Reigen. Mob wasn't sure what running had to do with getting dumped but she let him talk anyway. He told her about the time when he was thirteen and his first girlfriend cheated on him so he stole all the plants from her garden and planted them in his own garden. Then he told her not to ever do something like that because he had gotten in huge trouble. Then he talked about his mom a lot and how unfair she was when he was a kid.

Mob listened with all the attention that she could give. She wasn't sure how they had gotten to this point but she was happy to hear about what he had been like when he was her age. It seemed like a lifetime ago, because it was. When he was her age she was a baby. It was kind of weird to think about him being her age and going to school and having friends and catching his first girlfriend kissing some third year in the music room. She felt bad for him, for little him, and she said so.

"No, don't feel bad for me. I got right back to it and now I'm the man you see before you today. Don't let getting dumped stop you. Always move on." He had said. Mob nodded. Maybe she should find another boyfriend….but there weren't any boys at her school that she was interested in. Well, she didn't know that many boys to begin with. She asked Master Reigen if it was hard, finding someone.

"It's…not easy…but you'll find that special someone someday and then it'll all work out. It's like trying on shoes, you've got to try on a bunch of pairs until you find one that fits just right." He had said. Mob agreed. That was how it went on TV and in manga, anyway. There was someone for everyone and she just had to find her someone. She'd meet him and everything would click and then they'd share a bicycle and an umbrella and kiss under the cherry blossoms and then get married and stuff like that. She just had to find that special someone.

She wondered why Master Reigen had never found that special someone. She didn't ask, though, in case his heart still hurt from being broken. He had never had a girlfriend in all the time that she had known him. He must have gotten his heart broken really badly. She couldn't imagine any girl wanting to break up with him, though. Master Reigen was amazing.

He really was. He always knew just what to say and what to do. He never got scared or worried or anything except for when it came to cockroaches. He was even powerful to hide his aura. That was so amazing. Everything about him was amazing. The way he could make even a trip to the store seem like a grand adventure. The way he laughed in the face of danger not matter how great. The way he just seemed so…effortless. Effortlessly amazing.

Thoughts of Master Reigen's amazingness carried her home, through dinner, through homework time, and into sleep. She had been thinking about him a lot lately. It was weird. She said nothing, of course, because this seemed like the kind of thing that you didn't share with someone. It just felt…private? If that was the word to apply. She slept pretty deeply too, which was good because she had to get up before five in the morning. Mob had never gotten up before five in the morning before and it was kind of weird because it was so dark outside still but it was worth it. Nothing that was worth it came easy, Master Reigen told her that.

Mob tried to be quiet as she walked through the house. Mom and dad already left for work but Ritsu was still asleep and he needed all the sleep that he could get. He did a lot of very important student council work after all. She tried to be quiet but she wasn't quiet enough, apparently.

"Sister? What are you doing up so early?" said Ritsu while Mob was trying to find a way to eat breakfast as silently as possible. Had toast always been this crunchy? Maybe toast wasn't the best early morning food.

"I'm going for a run this morning before school." Said Mob. Ritsu looked at her for a long while. She wondered if he wanted some toast too. She had sort of made it right. There weren't any black parts.

"It's not even five a.m., school doesn't start for another three hours." Said Ritsu

"I know. I'm trying to get better at running so I can keep up with everyone. President Musashi said that I could run with him this morning and this is when he runs by here. Do you want some toast?" asked Mob. Ritsu was quiet for a moment.

"It doesn't have to be toast. I can make you cereal, too. We only have your cereal left, that's why I'm eating toast." Said Mob

"No, I'm fine. Just….be careful, ok?" asked Ritsu. Mob nodded. She did tend to fall down or pass out when she ran. It was nice of Ritsu so think of her like that.

Ritsu went back upstairs, hopefully back to bed. He was little, he needed more sleep than she did. Mob made sure to leave the house as quietly as possible. As quiet as a mouse in a house full of cats. She wondered if mice tried to be quiet or were they just quiet because they were so small. She was small and she was pretty quiet. She was so quiet that people sometimes even forgot that she was there. It was like she was a ghost, sometimes. She could just be there and nobody would look at her or talk to her and then they'd get all startled when she moved or something. She couldn't read the atmosphere but she sure could blend into it.

She stood there in front of her house in the dark and wondered if she could vanish into the darkness. Well, near darkness. The sky was starting to turn blue, like a dark sort of blue. It was pretty. She could see the white clouds against the sky. It was pretty, like someone put them on with a paintbrush. She did that thing where she got really into what she was looking at and she didn't notice the person jogging in place beside her.

"Hey! Are you coming?" Mob nodded. She got to jogging, trying her best to keep up. They jogged without talking, not that Mob could talk while she ran. It was hard to run and breathe and talk at the same time. Musashi seemed to think so too, he didn't talk to her much. He looked over at her sometimes, Mob looked back at him.

"It's easier if you keep your breathing level." He said after a while. Mob nodded. He was full of good advice like that. Every time she joined him, which wasn't every single morning of course, he gave her really great advice. How to keep her breathing the same so she always got enough air. How to run with the right form so she didn't end up hurting herself. Even how to fall properly, which she hadn't even been aware that there was a right way to fall.

It was a good way to spend mornings, Mob thought, even if she was tired for the rest of her day. She improved a lot and after a couple weeks of running together she could almost keep up with everyone else. She lagged right behind them, instead of far behind. Everyone was really happy for her, so happy that they threw her in the air couple of times after some brief debate.

Half of everyone thought it would be weird because she was a girl.

The other half said that it was weird to think that it was weird because she was a girl.

Then Musashi said that they should treat her just the same as they would treat any other club member. Then she got tossed in the air. It was fun, she decided. Being outside and being tossed up to the sky and then falling back down but knowing that people were there to catch her. When she reached as high as she could be thrown she could see the whole school! Even Ritsu! She waved to him but he didn't wave back. He must not have noticed her.

Unfortunately after that they moved from cardio to strength training. Just when Mob got good at one thing she had to learn something else. She still ran with Musashi some mornings but not as many since they moved to strength. He asked her if she wanted to run more often, though, sometimes, and Mob said yes. She was getting a lot better at running and stuff like that. She wanted to see how good she could get at it. Musashi seemed happy about that, he probably wanted someone to run with, too. She wondered why it was always just them and not any of the body improvement club boys joined them but she figured that they were busy. She wished that Ritsu could join them too but she didn't want to wake him up. He would have had fun, though. Musashi could make even running fun.

They didn't talk much while they ran. Well, Mob didn't talk much. She mostly listened. She listened when he told her about his family, a happy family, which Mob was happy about. Usually when boys told her about their families it was sad stuff. Musashi had a happy family with a mom and a dad and a grandma who lived out in the country and lived off the land. He had some older brothers but they were all grown up and out of the house. They got along, which made Mob happy. She had never heard of brothers getting along. She wondered if she and Ritsu would get along if she was a boy.

"Honestly I'm not sure. Your brother can be a little…much. No offense." Was what he had said to that thought. Mob could agree with that. Ritsu had been kind of a jerk before. He was done framing people and fighting with them and stuff like that. Musashi said that he didn't mean that and then they got quiet again and got back to running. They ran for a while before he talked again.

"Hey, can I ask you something?" he asked. Mob nodded even though asking her if he could ask her something was already asking her a question.

"Did you ask your brother to talk to Onigawara?" he asked her after a while. Mob shook her head.

"No, I didn't. I don't know what they talked about but I never asked Ritsu to talk to him for me. If I have something that I want to say then I say it." Said Mob. She may not have been very god at talking but when it came to it she could talk to people if she needed to.

"Oh…so your brother just took it upon himself?" he asked after a while.

"Yes. I didn't ask him to so I guess that's what he did." Said Mob wondering if Ritsu was being a jerk again. She hoped that he wasn't. Ritsu wasn't unpopular but he didn't have a lot of friends, it seemed like. Or maybe he did and she just didn't seen every single moment of his life. He had friends in student council, so maybe that was all the friends that he needed. Mob wished that she could bring him into her world and her friends could be his friends. Then they could spend time together.

Mob got her wish later on that very same week. They were inside, it was a club day, and they were lifting dumbbells. It was rainy out so they couldn't go outside and do squats and pushups and stuff like that. Mob had been in the middle of lifting two fifteen pound dumbbells, which felt a little light but she had to build up to heavy ones, when she felt Ritsu's aura. That wasn't weird, his hallway patrol schedule took him by the clubroom, but was did feel weird was the fact that he was lingering outside of the door. After a little while the door opened.

"Brother!" was the first thing that came to mind. Then everything not nailed down began to float. She put everything down as soon as she noticed what she was doing. She was just that happy. Ritsu was there and he was in his gym clothes so he must have been there to join them and it would be the best thing ever! Her friends could be his friends!

Tome wasn't as happy as Mob was. She told Ritsu to get out and not kill their fun. Mob, of course, told Ritsu to stay. She felt almost like she was the only person happy that he was there. Ritsu only got simple 'hellos' from everyone who wasn't Tome. Not much enthusiasm at all, which was weird because they were always happy to get new members.

"Mind if I join you?" asked Ritsu after a while. Again everyone was really quiet. Were there still hard feelings? Ritsu had apologized for what he did. What else did people want? He said that he was sorry and that he would never do it again. There. Then it was over.

Mob made sure to make her brother feel welcome. He was taking a sabbatical from student council, which was a professional way of saying a break, for reasons. When Mob asked him he just said that they were his own reasons and that he wanted to spend more time with her. Mob decided to enjoy it and not ask too many questions lest she pop the soap bubble that was the sheer wonderfulness of her little brother joining her club. They exercised together that day, Mob took it upon herself to show Ritsu how to lift with proper form so that he didn't end up pulling something.

She helped him out the next day, too.

And the next.

He even got up early enough to run with her and Musashi.

It was wonderful but sometimes she felt like she was the only one who wanted him around.

Nobody in the telepathy club ever asked him to come and play with them, which was odd because they were always asking her to join them, especially Tome.

The body improvement club boys, especially Onigawara, seemed to be keeping their distance too. Mob didn't get it. Ritsu was wonderful when you got to know him. The only trouble was that people didn't seem to want to get to know him. Ritsu had even stayed behind once, when Mob had work, because he wanted to talk to Musashi about something. Well him and all the other guys, he had said. She wanted to ask what it was about but she didn't because she didn't know how to ask without it being awkward because asking would have so clearly been her being nosy. She even asked Master Reigen for advice after a week of Ritsu joining them.

"Don't get in the middle of whatever it is, Mob. You can't solve all of your brother's problems for him and you can't make people like him." Master Reigen had said

"I'm his sister, I'm supposed to help him. He helps me out all the time." Was what Mob had said

"Mob…did you want his help? There's being helpful and then there's being overly helpful. You've got to give people space, it's part of growing up. You can love someone and want to swoop in and do what you think is best for them but it's just that, what YOU think is best. Just let him either make friends on his own or not, ok?" said Master Reigen. Mob listened to him. He gave good advice. He was so smart and wise and he always knew what to do. It made sense, what he had said. Mob wanted one thing for Ritsu but Ritsu maybe wanted something else for himself. She didn't know what but if Master Reigen thought that she should give him space then she would.

She would always listen to what Master Reigen said.

Mob gave Ritsu plenty of space to make his own friends but he just seemed to want to hang out with her. He always spotted her when she lifted and she did the same. They helped each other out all the time. They held each other's feet when they did sit ups, tossed the heavy medicine balls back and forth between each other, he even got her dumbbells for her. That was something that she didn't need him to do. He always brought her the ten pound ones even though she could lift much more than that.

He also ran very slowly, for her, he said.

He also used his powers to help her do pull ups and push ups.

She didn't need it and she told him that she didn't but he still did. She even told him what Master Reigen said about how there was being helpful and overly helpful. The rest of the club agreed with her. Musashi especially. He said that she had more tenacity than anyone he had ever seen, boy or girl, and that she was very capable. He said things like that a lot and they never stopped filling Mob with pride that someone so accomplished thought so highly of her. Ritsu dropped it then but he still kept on trying to help her. Mob kept on saying that she didn't need help. She was annoyed, a little, but she could never stay upset with Ritsu. He was her favorite and only little brother.

It all came to a head at the dinner table. Mob didn't know how it happened. She had only asked him to pass the soy sauce.

"So now you need my help, sister?" said Ritsu not even passing her the soy sauce even though she needed it.

"Yes. I need soy sauce and I can't reach across the table or use my powers because that's impolite." Said Mob. Mom was happy that she remembered that social rules.

"It's just that you don't ever want my help, sister, but now you do." Said Ritsu

"I like it when you help me, brother." Said Mob

"But not when it counts." Said Ritsu

"I don't know what you mean." Said Mob. She honestly didn't. Mom and dad didn't, either, which meant that she was not being clueless again.

In the end it took Ritsu a little while to explain himself. A long little while. Mob was patient. Mom and dad were less and less patient the more Ritsu explained himself. So he had been the one to make Shinji break up with her…and he had told Onigawara to leave her alone….well then.

Well then.

Mob had been…not happy. Not happy at all with Ritsu even though he was her little brother and she loved him. Well then. She was not a baby. They were not little anymore and she did not need him watching out for her like she was a little kid or something. Of course Mob said nothing. She loved Ritsu and she couldn't be mean to him like that. She loved him and when you loved your little brother you just didn't look at or talk to him until you calmed down. She knew how hard it could be when siblings didn't get along and therefore she would not fight or even say anything.

Mom and dad had plenty to say anyway.

"Ritsu, I know you mean well but that was not your place. Do not chase away your sister's boyfriends!" was what mom said.

"Yeah, that's my job!" was what dad said. He laughed after he said it. Nobody else did but that was normal for one of dad's jokes.

Mob didn't say anything. She just ate her dinner and went up to her room. She flopped down on her futon and stared at the ceiling. Anything not locked away or bolted down in her room decided to get caught up in the lazy sort of current her powers made as she thought.

Ritsu had said that he was protecting her because she was a girl and he knew how guys could be. That was his reason. That didn't seem like much of a reason but it was his reason. Same reason he had framed and fought with a bunch of people. Because he was trying to protect her. He meant well. Mob told herself that he meant well. He meant well and she had to be…grateful….that her little brother cared so much about her. Grateful.

She was not grateful to have been broken up with.

It still felt awful and had for a while.

But Ritsu had meant well.

So she should forgive him.

Mob closed her eyes. She had to forgive him because he meant well. He was just trying to protect her because he was a boy and she was girl and he thought that she was less capable than he was and that she wasn't capable of running her own life.

Her life was her own.

She could decide for herself who she wanted to date.

She would never have told some girl that she couldn't date Ritsu. He got confessed to all the time and Mob had never once said anything against the girls, even that one who was always picking her nose when she thought nobody was looking or the one who always stuck her gum to Mob's uniform when she walked by. If Ritsu ever got a girlfriend, and he probably would because he was great, Mob wouldn't say a word no matter what. His life was his own.

Her life was her own.

No. Don't be mad at Ritsu.

There was a knock at her door. She could see Ritsu's aura. He knew that closed doors meant leave me alone. Not that Mob would ever tell Ritsu to leave her alone or anything. That would be mean.

"Can I come in?" asked Ritsu

"I guess." Said Mob. She didn't want him to but she also knew how much it hurt when your sibling was mean to you. She had listened to enough boys' troubles to know that having an older brother who was mean to you was damaging. Having a big sister who was mean would probably have been just as damaging.

"I'm sorry, ok? I just…there's a lot of bad stuff that happens to girls and I...I didn't want anything to happen to you." Said Ritsu before sitting down next to her. Mob sat up.

"I know. I know that you mean well but…Ritsu I'm not...Ritsu I can run my own life. You don't have to talk to people for me or decide who I can date or-or anything! And you don't have to follow me around, either, ok? I wanted you to be in my club but if you're only there to make sure no boys talk to me-" said Mob. Ritsu shook his head.

"It's not just that…." Said Ritsu quietly

"What happened? You just felt like taking a break?" asked Mob. There was a lot of silence. Ritsu looked at her like he was going to say something but then stopped very suddenly.

"I…had to. I did something stupid…" said Ritsu

"You? But Ritsu, you're the smartest person I know." Said Mob. His test scores were so good that people had written about it in the actual paper, not the school paper. The real paper that people paid to read.

"I'm not….I was so dumb…." Said Ritsu. Mob shook her head. There was no way that Ritsu could ever do something dumb…unless he was beating people up again. Yes, that would have been dumb.

"What did you do? Maybe it's not so bad. Sometimes I think that I said something dumb but then after I ask Master Reigen he says that what I said wasn't dumb at all." Said Mob. Ritsu tensed.

"I really don't want to talk about him, ok?" aske Ritsu

"Sure, whatever you want." Said Mob. Ritsu didn't like Master Reigen. Why she did not know. Master Reigen was amazing.

"I just….I did something dumb and now I'm not sure if I can go back and…and I figured that I could hang out with you and protect you at the same time and I guess that…I'm sorry if I made you upset." Said Ritsu. He was looking down at her blanket now. Mob made room for him on her futon. After a moment he scooted over so that he was beside her.

"I'm fine, Ritsu. I'm more worried than upset now. What did you do? I'm sure that whatever it was it can't be so bad. You love student council and I think that you should go back. You shouldn't stop doing something that you love because you did something that you think is dumb. Remember, Ritsu, always fight on." Said Mob

"I…I asked someone out…" said Ritsu so quietly that he was whispering. Mob took his hand in hers. That was great! He found a special someone! Her little brother had some girl that he loved and now he was going to have a girlfriend and be so happy! Wait, no, because he was sad right now….

"Did you get rejected?" asked Mob. That must have been it. Mob took back everything that she said about staying out of Ritsu's life. Some girl had ripped her little brother's heart out. Nope. She was not going to get away with it. Mob would tell her in no uncertain terms that she had thrown away happiness with both hands because her little brother would obviously be the best boyfriend ever. He was the best at everything he put his mind to.

"Yes…I got rejected…." Said Ritsu

"By who? Who is she?" asked Mob. Ritsu shook his head. He looked like he wanted to say something else but kept changing his mind. Mob could understand that. She had trouble with words sometimes, too.

"I really don't want to get into it. Just…I asked out someone that I shouldn't have and now I can never go back." Said Ritsu

"And that's why you've been hanging out with me so often?" asked Mob. She was slightly, just slightly, hurt that her brother had only hung out with her because he had nothing better to do and he thought that she was incapable of running her own life. Just slightly.

"That and….you know he likes you, right? The club president?" asked Ritsu. Mob shook her head.

"No, I didn't know that." Said Mob. That couldn't have been true…right? Oh! Why didn't boys just come out and say it?!

"Well he does, ok? He does and I was just….I was just worried about you and…and I guess that I didn't want to deal with my own problems, too." Said Ritsu

"Well, thank you for telling me. I'll have to tell him that I don't feel like that about him. Myself. All by myself. Ok, Ritsu? You let me do this by myself and I won't tell whoever the girl was that she made a big mistake and also hurt your feelings." Said Mob. Ritsu looked her in the eye. He was paler then, too. Afraid. Mob knew that feeling. He was afraid. He didn't want her running his life any more then she wanted him running his life.

"Sister, please, don't dig into this. Ok? I just…I have to figure this out myself." Said Ritsu

"Ok. I won't get into this….but if you ever need help I'm here. You know even if she did reject you that's ok. You just haven't found your special someone yet and that's ok. Everyone has someone and you just have to try on a bunch of different pairs of shoes until you find a pair that fits." Said Mob. She was saying something that Master Reigen told her but she kept that part to herself. She didn't want to make Ritsu upset again. She seemed to make Ritsu feel better because he hugged her. They didn't hug that often so this was big. He told her that he felt a lot better. Mob was grateful to help.

She wondered, though, how she was going to tell Musashi that she didn't like him like that. She was sure that she didn't want to be his girlfriend. He just didn't….he wasn't someone she could see herself with like that. She was sure this time, not like the time between her and Shinji. She was completely sure that she did not want to be Musashi's girlfriend. She just had to tell him so.

Could she hurt someone like that?

Could she be with someone that she didn't want to be with?

She weighed both options in her mind all night.

She knew how much rejection hurt but she also knew that she could not be happy if she didn't say no. It was like Ritsu and whatever girl had said no to him, Hanako probably, Mob couldn't tell a girl to date her brother just because he liked her. Both people had to like each other otherwise both people would be upset. She had read enough shoujo to know this.

Both options were difficult but Mob knew which was less painful. She knew what she had to do. Tomorrow at school. Yes, that was a good time to say something. She knew what she had to do but she still felt like she had swallowed a rock. How did she even start this conversation? She wished that she could ask Master Reigen but he was probably sleeping or busy and she shouldn't bother him like that. Still, she wished that she could have asked him. It makes her feel sort of...weird...though. Him with a girl. Kind of…unhappy. But that was mean. Master Reigen deserved to have his own special someone to love and stuff like that and when he did find her she should have been happy for him. That was the nice thing to do. The right thing to do.

But doing the right thing didn't always come easy.

The next day Mob knew that she had to do the right thing. She had to come right out and just say it. Of course coming right out and just saying things had never been a talent of Mob's.

Opportunity came when club ended. Ritsu had gone back to student council. He had said that morning that he was through hiding and he was ready to own up to what happened. Ritsu was so brave and mature like that. The best little brother she could have ever asked for. Not that she had asked or anything, she just sort of got him. Still, though, maybe it would have been easier to have Ritsu….no. Her life was her own and she could run her own life.

"Can I talk to you?" asked Mob once everyone had filed out. Well everyone but Tome, she was at a part of her game that she couldn't pause. She wasn't listening though, her eyes were super focused. She was in the zone, which was an expression for when she was really into something.

"Sure, Mob. What's up?" asked Musashi. Mob took a deep breath.

"My brother says that you like me and he's probably right because he's really smart and good at understanding people but I don't know for sure because you never asked me out on a date or left a note in my locker or anything but I just wanted to say that I don't like you like that but I do like you as a friend so please don't be sad or mad or upset but if you are I understand." Said Mob all in one breath. She bowed at the end, a bow so deep she wondered if her spine would snap. Did that actually happen? Mom always said that she'd end up breaking her back one of these days so it might…

"Wow. You've got some impressive lung capacity, Mob." He said after a while. He patted her on the back. She straightened out back to a standing position. At least her back wouldn't break or anything.

"Thank you. You aren't sad or mad or upset or anything?" asked Mob. Musashi shook his head.

"No, not at all. I do like you a lot but I can respect the fact that you don't feel the same way and of course we'll still be friends." Said Musashi. Mob sighed in relief.

"Oh. Ok. Good. I was worried that you'd be upset with me. Are we still running tomorrow morning?" asked Mob

"If you want to. You've been making some amazing progress, you haven't passed out in weeks." He said with a smile. Mob smiled back. What a relief. Maybe some people just took rejection really well. Well, Musashi took everything really well. Fight on wasn't just his working out philosophy but his living life philosophy too. It seemed like a pretty good one.

Late on that day Mob told Master Reigen what happened over some takoyaki. She spun his around with her powers as she spun him the tale of what happened.

"You handled that really well, Mob. I'm proud of you. You know, I was kind of worried about when you got to, well, all of this, but you're doing great. Keep on trying on those shoes, Mob, keep trying on shoes." Said Master Reigen before she tossed him his newly cooled and ready to eat Takoyaki. She knew what he meant. She just wondered what it would be like when she finally found the right pair of shoes.

Hopefully it would feel just like this.


	4. Tome Kurata

Mob had never given much thought to other girls. Not the kind of thought that Tome did, anyway. She knew who was cute and who wasn't, who was popular and who wasn't, things like that. Tome noticed other things too, things that it never occurred to Mob to notice mainly because nobody ever noticed her.

"So, staring at Tsubomi again?" Tome asked one day when she had caught Mob, well, staring. Tsubomi was so cute and pretty. Mob wished that she could be that cute, but she wasn't.

"Yes. She has a new hairclip, it's nice." Said Mob

"Uh-huh. Sure, that's what you're staring at." Said Tome

It was. Mob didn't know what else she would be staring at, she hadn't even realized that she had been staring. She hadn't noticed but Tome noticed. She was good at noticing.

"Hey, Mob, new hair ribbons? You look cute."

"Hey Mob, wow, you never wear your hair down. It's cute."

Tome noticed a lot of things about her. She was a good friend like that. Mob noticed things back. That was the polite thing to do, when your friend noticed things about you then you had to notice things about them right back. She suspected that Tome was one of her best friends. Neither of them had a lot of friends who were girls and if anime and manga had taught Mob anything it was that you needed a best friend.

"Tome you're really good at this game. You already beat me twice."

"Tome you run really fast, you should join body improvement club."

"Tome you have really pretty eyelashes, they're super long."

Most of Mob's compliments were appearance based because most of Tome's were. Tome thought that she was cute. She didn't see it, not really. She thought that she looked kind of boring but maybe the way she saw herself was different from the way that other people saw her. Tome thought she was cute. Cute like a kitten cute, not cute like Tsubomi cute.

"I don't know why you're so hung up on her. There's nothing to her. She just has extremely long hair and plays tennis in a short skirt. Whatever." That was what Tome said when Mob said that she wasn't Tsubomi cute.

Mob had said that she was also really nice and everyone wanted to be her friend. Tome just huffed and killed her in the game that they were playing. Tome was really good at videogames. Mob was ok at them, she hadn't devoted a portion of her life to them like Tome did. Tome was very devoted to the things she liked. People called her a slacker. Well they called her a lot of things but slacker came up pretty often. Next was weirdo. Then crazy. Mob didn't think that any of those things were true.

Tome was super devoted to developing telepathy. She practiced mind tricks before bed every night. She had Mob help, too. Tome read in a book that telepathy was a common form of ESP and since Mob was an esper she might have latent telepathic abilities. That was why every night before bed Mob had to visualize something, the first thing that came to mind, and then Tome would do the same thing. The first thing that they were supposed to do when they got up was draw what they had seen in their dreams. Since they were such good friends they obviously had mental synchronization and therefore they could share thoughts with Mob acting as the conduit for this telepathy. Or so it was supposed to go.

Mob drew a cat. Tome drew a spaceship. Tome said that it worked because it was both things that they were passionate about. So success?

Mob drew a circle. Tome drew a cube. That was a success because they were both shapes. Even though they were on different planes of perspective. So success?

Mob drew school. Tome drew bubble tea with extra boba. That was a success because Tome said so. Mob liked school, Tome liked bubble tea.

Mob drew Master Reigen. A few times, actually. Tome drew people sometimes, too. Mob a few times. Inukawa from club. The blond guy from Free! Tsubomi a few times. So that was a success. Therefore they were developing telepathy.

Not that Mob felt any more telepathic. Tome said that they were on the right track and Mob chose to believe her. That was what best friends did, they supported each other. Tome was totally her best friend, she had said so herself, eventually.

"Mob, of course I'm your best friend! We hang out all the time! Get a clue!" said Tome. She apologized, though, for saying get a clue. It hurt Mob's feelings and best friends did not hurt each other's feelings. Tome said sorry a bunch of times even though once was enough.

It was still nice, though, that she cared so much.

At dinner Mob told her parents that she and Tome had become best friends. Ritsu had an immediate opinion.

"Kurata? She's a weirdo, sister." Said Ritsu. That wasn't true at all. Tome could be a little different but Mob had seen much weirder people in her life. Like that one time when she and Master Reigen had gone to an exorcism in the warehouse district and ended up meeting the guy covered in birds who said that he was their king. That was a weirdo. Everyone knew that birds didn't have a hierarchical society. Tome was just different. She liked aliens and supernatural stuff and shouting and videogames but that didn't make her a weirdo.

Besides, that was a mean thing to call someone. Mom and dad agreed.

"Ritsu! Don't chase your sister's friends away. You be nice! She has enough trouble making friends as it is." Mom had said.

"This is a girl right? Please tell me that this is a girl. I don't think that my heart could take it otherwise." Was what dad had said. Then he grabbed his heart and Mob was worried but mom told dad to stop trying to be funny and Ritsu rolled his eyes. Mob told him that Tome was a girl anyway, in case he wasn't faking. Why he was doing that he did not know.

Then mom asked her if there were any boys at her school that she was interested in. Mob said no. Mom got that look on her face that she got sometimes, where her lips got super thin like she was trying to eat them. Dad said that was a load off of his mind. Then mom told him to stop being ridiculous. Then mom asked Ritsu if there were any girls he was interested in and he coughed a lot. Mob hit him on the back and handed him some water. It was dangerous to eat and talk. Ritsu eventually coughed out a 'no' and now it was Ritsu's turn to get mom's thin lipped look. Mob wondered what that was about.

There were a lot of looks that she didn't understand. Like this weird one that she got sometimes when she was working out with the rest of the club. Sometimes they'd be outside and running or jumping and people would just sort of look at her. Boys, almost always. Even her club mates. They looked away when she met their eyes, though. Tome looked at her like that too, sometimes. Sometimes Tome would come outside and play her DS on the steps while the Body Improvement club practiced. Sometimes she'd watch the club and not her DS. Sometimes her eyes would meet Mob's but she didn't look away like everyone else did. She'd meet Mob's eyes. Mob couldn't hold up eye contact for very long, though, she had trouble with that.

She tried to, though, to not be rude. She could come off as rude sometimes. She knew what people said, that she was the weird girl in class 2-1. That she was always staring at nothing. That her eyes were creepy. Tome said that people were full of meanness. Well she didn't say meanness but that was what she meant.

"People are full of shit, Mob, all of them. There's nothing weird about you. You're cool, like a Rei Ayanami type." Said Tome. Mob smiled, then, because Rei was her second favorite Evangelion character. It went Shinji, Rei, Misato, Kaworu, and then Asuka. Tome's list went Asuka, Rei, Misato, Ritsuko, and then Maya. She shipped Ritsuko and Maya. Mob shipped Rei and Shinji, though not as seriously as Tome took her ships.

"I mean, it's clear that Maya at least had a thing for her. Ritsuko could have been so happy if she had just realized what was right in front of her." said Tome. She was giving Mob one of those unreadable looks when she said that.

"But the point of Evangelion is that nobody can ever be happy." Mob had replied. Tome scoffed.

"You can be happy, easily, if you just admit what you want and go for it." Tome had said. Mob thought on that for a long while. That made sense. That made a lot of sense. In the show Shinji just wanted to be loved and Rei just wanted to be seen as a person and if they had just talked to each other about what they felt then they could have been together and been happy. She told Tome that. Tome smiled, she always smiled when Mob agreed with her.

Mob always agreed with her, even if her heart wasn't super into it. Like the aliens. Mob had never seen any aliens but that did not mean that they weren't real. The universe was super big so of course there could have been life out on some other planet. Mob didn't think that there could be a reason for a race that had mastered space travel to bother a planet like theirs. Tome had an answer for that.

"Mob, listen! I mean really listen. This planet is so noisy! We're practically screaming out into space! Plus we keep launching probes and stuff. They know we're here and they come by because they're curious. They just don't want to stay because we can't hold their attention." Said Tome

"But then how do we hold their attention?" asked Mob with genuine curiosity. She wanted to know. Tome knew a lot about things like this, things she was passionate about. She was full of passion, Mob thought, even though Ritsu only thought that she was full of it. Mob was long past wondering why Ritsu didn't like any of her friends. This was just a fact of life.

"Mob, Mob, Mob, like you could have any trouble holding anyone's attention." Said Tome. They she looked at Mob for a long time. Mob looked right back at her. She held eye contact for as long as Tome did. Holding eye contact was an important part of proper socializing, Master Reigen said. Tome was the one who broke eye contact first.

"We're going to karaoke after school tomorrow!" Tome had said. She didn't ask questions, she made proclamations. She wondered if she knew that people thought that she was rude for that. Tome probably didn't care. She was very focused on the things she loved and that focus didn't leave a lot of time for caring about what other people thought, as she often said.

"I have work tomorrow." Said Mob. She didn't want to cancel on Master Reigen. She was always telling him not to call her in on short notice but this was not short notice. Besides, it would have been rude to cancel on short notice.

"The day after that." Said Tome grabbing her hand. Mob nodded. Tome was a very touchy feely person and she tended to shake Mob when she got overly excited.

"Sure. After club." Said Mob. Tome still held onto her hand. Mob let her. Mob held it back, eventually, too. That was something she had seen a lot of best friends do. Tsubomi held hands with her friends all the time. Mob didn't know much about being friends with another girl so she decided to do what the popular girls did. They were experts at making friends.

Tome held her hand for the rest of the time they spent hanging out. She even walked like that to Mob's job. Tome said that she was coming with because she had never seen an exorcist's office before. Mob told her not to get her hopes up, it was kind of boring in there. Tome said that there was nothing about Mob that could ever be boring. Not that Tome got to see the upstairs. Master Reigen was standing outside smoking when she got there.

Mob may have stared a little. It was ok because Tome was staring too.

"That's him?" she had whispered in that loud sort of way that was more like breathy talking. Mob still whispered back.

"Yes. That's Master Reigen." Said Mob in that same whisper. She didn't get why she was whispering but like Master Reigen had said sometimes it was best to follow the lead of the person who knew what they were doing.

"Yeah. I can see why you keep coming here." Said Tome in that same whisper. Master Reigen might not have been able to hear them. He had a cigarette in one hand and a phone in the other. It took him a minute to look up and notice Mob. She looked away when his eyes met hers. She had been doing that a lot lately. There was just something about him looking at her that made her feel all weird.

"Hello Mob and Mob's friend." He had said. His voice made her feel all funny inside too. She managed to find her voice and introduce Tome. Tome shook his hand a lot and asked if he needed a secretary. Master Reigen said that he didn't, even one who would work for free. She asked a bunch of questions about their work. Mob answered some, Master Reigen answered others, but not too many were answered because they had spirits to exorcise.

After the exorcism Master Reigen took her out for burgers and fries.

"So, she seemed…energetic." Was what he had to say through a mouth full of fries with extra salt. Mob waited to finish chewing before she answered him.

"Yes. She has a lot of energy. I hope I can keep up with her tomorrow. She says that we're going to karaoke but I know Tome. She's probably going to want to go around looking for telepaths too. She does that a lot, look for telepaths. I feel bad that we haven't found any but if we keep on looking we're bound to find them. She needs a telepath to find aliens, she really wants to find aliens." Said Mob saying more words than normal. Master Reigen liked it when she used a lot of words, he said so. He said that he liked how she was working harder on her social skills.

"Telepaths? Aliens? I feel like there's a story there." Said Master Reigen. There was and Mob told it. She told Master Reigen about the times that she and Tome went around looking for telepaths. About how they worked on their mental synchronization. About how they played games together and about how Tome was much better than she was but she didn't mind.

"Well I'm glad you're making a new friend." Said Master Reigen. Mob shook her head.

"No, Master. She's my best friend. My best friend who's a girl." Said Mob. She left the position of best friend who was a boy opened for him. Ritsu didn't count because he was her brother and brothers were their own thing.

"Ok then, best friend who's a girl." Said Master Reigen. He had a tone there. After a little bit he said that she could tell him anything. Mob knew that and she told him that she knew that. She knew that she could tell him anything and she did.

That was why he was the person in the lead for the position of her best friend who was a boy. If he could be her best friend who was a boy. He was twice her age so maybe he got his own category too. Maybe he was already in the best friend category like Tome was and asking would just make her look like she couldn't get a clue. She wouldn't ask about it, then. She would just wait and see if he said that they were best friends first, like Tome had said that they were best friends.

They really were the best of friends. They spent hours after school doing best friend things. They went to karaoke where it was Tome who mostly sang. Mob didn't have much vocal range, Tome had said, and she had no rhythm, Tome had said. Mob was just happy to be there. She liked hitting the tambourine even though she didn't know quite when to hit it. Plus they had Cruel Angel's Thesis and she and Tome sang it as a duet. They didn't have Komm Susser Tod though, but that was alright.

"You are so weird." Tome had said when Mob had told her that Komm Susser Tod was her favorite song.

"I'm sorry." Said Mob

"No, don't be. I like it. You're such a Rei Ayanami type. I mean, it's such a weird song in English. It means come sweet death but it's so upbeat. Kind of like you. You're like a contradiction." Said Tome. She wasn't shouting like she normally did, now. Now they were sitting on the couch in the karaoke room. They were taking a hydration break. Tome had a strawberry soda. Mob had strawberry milk. It was pretty good.

"Contradiction?" asked Mob. She knew the word but she had never heard it applied to a person before.

"Yeah. Like you're gloomy but super cute. You're clueless but wise. You quiet but really funny in a deadpan sort of way when you do talk. I like that about you. I like you." Said Tome. Mob smiled.

"I like you too." Said Mob. They were best friends, of course they liked each other, and it was nice to hear it.

"No, I mean I LIKE you." Said Tome taking her hand. Mob blinked but held her hand back.

"I like you too." Said Mob again. She just went with it. She was going to be better at socializing and in order to be better at this she should follow the lead of the person who knew what they were doing.

"Good. We're girlfriends now." Said Tome nodding to herself. Mob nodded too. Was that a layer above best friends? Mom had lunch every other week with her girlfriends from university. Maybe it was a lifelong friendship like that. She'd like to be lifelong friends with Tome.

After that they had to go. They ran out of time and other people needed the room. Tome told Mob to walk home with her. Mob listened. She knew that people thought that Tome could be bossy but Mob liked bossy. Bossy meant that there was no way that she could misinterpret what the right thing to do was.

That night when they did their mental synchronization Mob drew the tenth angel Sahaquiel from EVA. Tome drew a picture of Mob. She said that their telepathy experiment was a rousing success because the angel was obviously supposed to represent her. It had amazing eye lashes after all and the two of them had sung the theme song from EVA together. Mob agreed. Tome was the telepathy expert after all, and her best friend. No, wait, her girlfriend.

Girlfriend was best friend but with more hand holding and hanging out. They hung out whenever Mob had free time. Not to places all the time because Tome wasn't made of money and Mob only got paid three hundred yen an hour. They went to each other's houses a lot. Tome liked Mob's house better because Mob's parents didn't make her keep her door opened.

Mob didn't really know why Tome's mom asked her to keep her door opened whenever Mob came over but she decided not to ask. It wasn't the place of the guest to question the rules. She just went with it. She liked Tome's house because Tome had more games for her Nintendo. She even had it in her room with her own TV. They could even eat dinner in her room so long as they brought their dirty dishes downstairs and didn't wake Tome's dad. He worked all night at a warehouse. Tome's mom had to work nights too, she was a nurse at a hospital, and those were the times when Tome had to go to Mob's house.

Mob liked Tome's house better. Mom let them be in her room but they weren't allowed to eat up there. She didn't have her own TV or anything like that. Her powers tended to go out of control and she could have broken it. Also mom and dad said that it would be bad for her and Ritsu's social development to have their own TVs. Tome didn't mind. They played DS together or worked on their mental synchronization or just watched phone videos. Tome always had plenty of phone videos for them to watch. True alien encounters, videogame reviews, videogame play throughs, supernatural documentaries, and once Mob gave her the wifi password and use of her charger they could watch shows together.

Tome said that it was important that they had a show to watch together. Mob decided to listen to the expert. She would have let Tome pick but she said that they had to pick together. Mob picked EVA because EVA was the greatest show ever. Tome sighed and agreed even though she had seen it a million times already.

Which meant that it was worth watching again, in Mob's opinion.

So they spent a lot of time in Mob's futon sitting really close together and watching EVA on Tome's phone. Her screen was bigger and had better picture quality. Mob didn't mind how close they were sitting even though she knew that it was closer than socially appropriate. Sitting always turned to laying down. She'd lay kind of sideways on Tome's shoulder, mostly because Tome said that it would be the optimal way to watch. Tome wrapped an arm around her, too, and Mob figured that it was for stability. Tome rested her head on top of Mob's sometimes. It was comfy even though it looked like it wouldn't have been. Tome thought that it was comfy, after a while it was how she always wanted them to watch EVA. Mob didn't mind.

Ritsu did for some reason though. He was always trying to hang out with them and Mob wanted him to but he was mean to Tome so she also didn't want him to. Tome wasn't too nice to him either, actually. It was like when two cats got all hissy with each other and their tails stuck up and their ears went flat. Mob didn't want anyone to fight and she was grateful that mom, when she was home, told Ritsu to leave them alone. She loved her brother but she also loved it when nobody was fighting.

"I'm sorry about Ritsu. I don't know why he's like that sometimes." Said Mob after the last time Ritsu had come in and tried to hang out with them/fight with Tome.

"Boys are so immature. He's just being overprotective. He doesn't want anyone taking his big sister away." Tome had said. She muttered something that sounded like 'then he'll have nobody to hang out with' but Mob wasn't sure if Tome had said that so she said nothing. Tome might not have said anything, she yelled whenever she had something to say. Well she used to. She could talk at a normal volume sometimes.

"But I'm his sister, I can't go anywhere." Said Mob because that was what sisters did. They were always there for their brothers.

"He's just really weird. You both are, but in a good way. I like your weirdness." Said Tome. She was sitting up now so Mob did the same. Tome was kind of in her space now. Mob couldn't move back, though, because the wall was behind her. This was normal for Tome, she wasn't too big on personal space.

"I like the things that people say are weird about you too, Tome." Said Mob. She meant it. Tome was super interesting. She was so happy so have someone so interesting and understanding in her life. Even if she didn't always know what Tome was talking about.

"So." Said Tome. Mob blinked.

"So?" asked Mob. She didn't understand but that was normal for her.

"We've been doing this for a couple weeks now." Said Tome in a very serious sounding voice. Mob nodded.

"Hanging out at each other's houses?" asked Mob

"Yes. That leads me to this, and it has been on my mind for a while now." Said Tome still in that super serious tone.

"Had what?" asked Mob. Hopefully it wasn't a bad thing. When her mom said that she had something on her mind for a while it was usually something bad, like they had to clean the whole house in one day or something like that.

"Have you kissed anyone before?" asked Tome. Mob blushed and nodded.

"Once, but it was on accident. Then he broke up with me." Said Mob softly. She still wasn't sure if that one counted or not.

"Hmm…are you against physical affection or are you just too shy to initiate it?" asked Tome. Mob shrugged.

"If you're asking if I like kissing I don't know. Maybe. I like to think about it…" said Mob turning red. She could see herself in her wardrobe mirror. She was red as a tomato in the summertime.

"Well then I'm going to kiss you." Said Tome. Mob blinked. Her hair went flying straight up.

"Huh?" asked Mob. Tome wanted to kiss her? But why? She liked Inukawa. She had told Mob back when they first met that she liked Inukawa but he was super dense, her words, and wouldn't know love if it walked up and kicked him in the you know where, not exactly her words.

"If you'll let me." Said Tome quickly

"You want us to kiss?" asked Mob

"Well who else would you rather kiss? Tsubomi?" asked Tome crossing her arms. Mob shook her head. She knew that face, Tome was upset. If Tome wanted to kiss her, not that she knew why Tome wanted to kiss her, then Mob would kiss her. It could be nice…not that she had ever thought about kissing another girl before….

"No, I don't want to kiss Tsubomi." Said Mob. She thought Tsubomi was nice and pretty but she didn't want to kiss her or anything.

"Well you talk about her enough…" said Tome. Mob reached over and took Tome's hand. She didn't want Tome to be upset with her. She hated it when people were upset.

"Tome, you can kiss me." Said Mob. If it meant that much to Tome then Mob would kiss her. Tome looked over and uncrossed her arms.

"Really? Great! Ok, close your eyes and do what I do." Said Tome. Mob closed her eyes.

"Wait, if my eyes are closed then how am I supposed to copy you?" asked Mob. Tome shushed her.

"And don't talk! Do you want this to be good or not?" asked Tome. Mob nodded.

"I'm sorry." Said Mob. Then she apologized for still talking. Then Tome asked her if she was done and she said yes. Then she apologized for talking. Then she was quiet for a while. She could hear her heart beating in her ears. She could feel her powers reaching out to all the lose things in her room. She could feel herself fidgeting with the change on her desk, the stuffed animals on her floor, even opening and closing the blinds. She had never thought about kissing a girl before but she never really thought about kissing specific people. Well, Master Reigen, but that was…that was something that was staying in the embarrassing secrets vault. She had never had a real kiss before and Tome wanted to kiss her. Why?

She's seen girls kiss their friends on the cheek before. Maybe this was an extension of that. Tome liked boys. Her room had a bunch of posters of boys and she had a bunch of boy's love manga and games. Her boys love stuff outnumbered her girl's love stuff. That meant that she liked boys, right?

Mob liked boys. Well she liked thinking about boys in general. She never really thought about girls. She thought about Tsubomi a lot. How her hair was so long and shiny and pretty. How she was always so nice. Things like that. She never thought about kissing Tsubomi…but it never occurred to her that kissing Tsubomi was something that she could think about. She liked Tome, too. She liked spending time with Tome and being near her and listening to her talk…

But she liked boys, too.

Could you like both?

She had never heard of anyone liking both before. Then again she didn't know a lot about these things.

She did know that she wanted Tome to kiss her, though. She wanted this.

Then it happened.

Then the lights in the house went out.

Then she heard heavy running footsteps coming from Ritsu's room coupled with mom yelling at dad to check the circuit breaker and she pulled away from Tome. She smacked her head against the wall. She didn't mind.

That was something. Something good.

"Sister! What happened? I saw your aura and-" said Ritsu as he practically threw himself through the door.

"Hey! Learn to knock!" shouted Tome. Mob didn't want to tell Ritsu. She didn't want to tell anyone. This was so private, the most private. Her first kiss ever. The first real kiss she had ever had. Wow. Wow! This was hers and hers alone…and Tome's…but not something that she wanted to discuss with her little brother.

"This is my house!" said Ritsu. He looked like was about to say more, probably something mean, so Mob stopped him.

"Ritsu, I'm fine. Please knock next time." Said Mob finding her voice. Thank goodness it was so dark. That way Ritsu couldn't see how red she was and then put two and two together.

"You just blew the power to the entire house. You're not fine." Said Ritsu

"She knows when she's fine and when she isn't." said Tome. Thankfully before this could turn into a full blown fight mom shouted up the stairs that dad was fixing the power and that Ritsu needed to stop bothering Mob and her friend.

Girlfriend.

Oh. That was what Tome meant.

Mob could do this.

She did do this.

"So? Better than Kamuro?" Tome asked her later on. The lights had been fixed but they still sat in Mob's room in the dark. Mob nodded.

"Yes. Because that wasn't on accident. Also you asked me. So it was better." Said Mob. They were all cuddly again and it was nice and this was nice. She liked this, knowing that she was someone's girlfriend. She was glad that Tome had said so and not just assumed that Mob would pick up on it.

This was nice.

Master Reigen thought so too. Well after he was done choking on his food.

"Mob, that's great! Uh…way to figure yourself out!" he had said after he finished choking on his ramen broth. Mob had told him while they were having dinner. He had asked what was new so Mob told him. This whole thing was new and it was nice and she wanted to share this with Master Reigen. She shared everything with Master Reigen.

"That's what adolescence is for, figuring yourself out!" he said. Mob nodded.

"So good for you! Keep it up!" said Master Reigen. Mob nodded. He put his hand on her shoulder when he said that and her stomach got that weird fluttery feeling in it. She liked it. She got that feeling a lot, well she had been getting it a lot lately, and not just with Master Reigen.

She got it when Tome held her hand.

She got it when Tome kissed her.

She got it when Tome cuddled with her and they watched TV. Well they used to watch TV but now more kissing happened than TV watching. Lots of kissing. Tome liked kissing. Mob liked it too but Tome really liked it. Kissing and touching at the same time. Sometimes more than Mob was one hundred percent ready for.

"That tickles a lot." Mob said one day when they were sitting on her futon and Tome's hand had found her stomach. Tome rolled her eyes.

"That's all?" asked Tome

"Yes. It tickles when you touch my stomach." Said Mob. Tome rolled her eyes again and moved her hand up higher. Mob scooted back and pulled her shirt back down with her powers. She looked away. Her face was red, she could feel it.

"Seriously Mob?" said Tome. Mob nodded.

"Too much. It's embarrassing." Said Mob

"Even if it's me?" asked Tome

"Well nobody ever touched me like that before." Said Mob, and it was true. Nobody but her own self had ever touched her like that and the thought of someone touching her like that made her feel all weird but good but scared but excited but nervous and the entire thing was just too much so she had to stop because when she felt too many big feelings like that she exploded and she was not going to explode so she stopped it before it started.

"So why not start?" asked Tome. Mob explained as best as she could but she didn't get very far because here was bang and a crash against her far wall. Heavy footsteps practically shook the house and then Mob's door was thrown open.

"Mom says that dinner's almost ready so SHE has to go home right now." Said Ritsu. He was looking away from Mob and Tome. Tome rolled her eyes but left. Tome had to be home to have dinner with her own family sometimes. That was what she said, anyway, when her parents asked her to stay for dinner. Tome told Mob, when they were on their own, that she didn't like being glared at by Ritsu. If she wanted people to be mean to her then she would go to school and wait for tomorrow to happen, she had said.

Tome was her girlfriend and therefore Mob wanted her to be comfortable in her house. So she decided to tell Ritsu to be nice while they were having dinner.

"I know you think she's just your friend but sister…she wants to be more than friends with you." Was what Ritsu had said. Mom and dad stopped eating and were staring at them.

"I know she does. She's my girlfriend." Said Mob. Mom dropped her fork and blinked a few times. Dad pulled out his phone and started reading something really interesting. He crossed his leg over the other and began to him loudly as he looked through his phone.

"Oh, look, gold is up today and silver is way down….fascinating…" dad said more to himself than anyone else.

"I'm sure that Tome is your girlfriend in the same way that Ritsu is your boyfriend." Said mom after she had a long drink of water. Ritsu and Mob both stared at mom. Ritsu looked at mom and then at Mob and then back at mom again.

"What?" was all he could say. Mob agreed. What?

"Mom Ritsu can't be my boyfriend, it's illegal. Also he's my little brother." Said Mob. That would just be gross. Ick. Some people were like that, in anime at least lots of brothers and sisters were in love with each other. They usually weren't blood siblings, not that it was any less weird, in Mob's opinion.

"Why did you say illegal before the fact that we're brother and sister?" asked Ritsu. Mob shrugged.

"No real reason." Said Mob

"ANYWAY I'm sure that your sister didn't mean that she was seeing that Tome girl in a…romantic capacity." Said Mom. Mob shook her head.

"No. We're a couple. We're girlfriends." Said Mob simply. She had assumed that her family knew. Well that was bad of her. She should really tell people things. She had just assumed since she and Tome were together all the time and held hands all the time that her parents would have known. This was her mistake.

"You…like girls?" asked Ritsu. He was looking at her in a way that she did not understand. Like he was…shocked. Yes, that was the face that he was making. Shocked.

"Yes, I think. Girls and boys." Said Mob. Mom made a weird sort of gasping sound like her lungs had stopped working. Dad stood up suddenly.

"You guys know what we haven't done in a while? We haven't gone to the movies as a family in weeks! Let's go right now!" said dad

"Ichimuro sit down! We're eating!" said Mom

"There's food at the movie theatre!" said dad. He walked away quickly. Mob followed. She liked going to the movies. She and dad made it to the car and waited for mom and Ritsu.

"Your mother and I aren't angry with you, Shigeko. Just remember that. This is just a…surprise. This has been a surprise but your mother and I are very happy that you've found a…partner. We're happy for you." Said dad as eh held the steering wheel really tightly and stared at the house.

"Thank you dad. What movie are we seeing?" asked Mob. Dad said that he had no idea and that was what made it an adventure. Mob texted Ritsu asking if he was coming. After a moment he and Mob came out. The car ride was quiet. Mob liked it quiet, it was peaceful.

"Shigeko…we're not mad." Mom said after a while. Mob nodded. She never thought that they were mad at her to begin with. Ritsu kept on looking at her and then looking away. Maybe he was mad at her. He said that he was worried about her meeting a guy who would be bad for her so maybe he was worried about girls, too.

"Why her? She's so-" said Ritsu

"Ritsu! Don't scare away your sister's…girlfriends. Be opened minded! We raised you to be open minded…" said Mom looking out the window. The rest of the car ride was quiet again. They managed to get there when a movie was just started. It was one of those movies that was an anime cut together. This one was about kids in an abyss but one of them was a robot and also it was sad. The popcorn was good, though, and they got free posters.

Mob had just put hers up in her room when Ritsu came in. He knocked first that time, though, so that was progress. He stood in her doorway for a little bit just looking at her.

"So…that was a cool movie." Said Ritsu

"It was sad but it was nice of dad to take us. He was right, we haven't gone to the movies in a while. Do you want my leftover popcorn?" asked Mob

"No, I'm fine. Listen um…how did you know?" asked Ritsu as he played with the hem of his pajama shirt. He shouldn't do that, it could fray and then mom would be mad.

"That I wanted more popcorn? Well I had finished mine and we got free refills so I got some more popcorn and then I ate some but I'm not hungry enough to eat that much popcorn so-" said Mob looking at the popcorn tub on her desk.

"No, I mean…how did you know that you liked girls?" asked Ritsu shaking his head.

"I think I might have for a while and I just didn't realize it. Tome asked me to be her girlfriend and then she kissed me, but not right after, and now we're girlfriends." Said Mob

"..that's all?" asked Ritsu

"Yes. That's all." Said Mob. Ritsu stood in her doorway for a while before he said goodnight. Mob hoped that he was alright. He got into moods sometimes. She didn't get it but it might have been one of those things that was none of her business. She minded her own business, unlike Ritsu.

But that was mean.

But he did come in without knocking a lot.

Not that it mattered. Mom said that she had to keep her door opened from now on. When mom was home she came in a lot to ask if they needed anything. Sometimes she brought snacks, so that was nice. She told Mob, later on, to let Ritsu hang out with them too because he felt excluded. Mob didn't mind. She could kiss Tome at other times, like at school or after club or when they went to Tome's house. Tome didn't feel the same way.

"You know, Mob, I'm feeling a real lack of intimacy here." Said Tome one time when they were at Mob's house downstairs. They had finished EVA the series and were going through the rebuild movies. Well they had been but they had to pause it because Ritsu had to get up to go to the bathroom. Tome took his spot, he had been sitting between her and Tome.

"You want to watch something else? My family saw a movie a couple days ago about this big hole called an abyss and-" said Mob

"No, I mean INTIMACY! Your little brother is always hanging out with us! Can't you tell him to get a life?" asked Tome. Mob frowned, she would never say something that mean to Ritsu. She didn't want him to feel left out. He was her little brother, he mattered the most to her in the entire world.

"I love Ritsu and I don't want to make him feel bad. We can kiss right now if you want to. Ritsu's probably waiting in line for the bathroom. Dad's work had an ice cream social and he's not allowed to have dairy so he'll be a while." Said Mob

"Mob, I want to do more than kiss! Don't you?" asked Tome. She put her hand on Mob's leg where her skirt had ridden up kind of high on her thigh. Mob scooted back.

"I can't, I might explode or something. I'm nervous." Said Mob

"You wouldn't say that if I were Tsubomi…" said Tome quietly.

"I would. I know myself and I know that when I get big feelings like that my powers go out of control." Said Mob. Even on her own she sometimes lost control, it would be even worse with another person.

"So why not practice? The only way to get better is with practice, you know." Said Tome

"That's true. My Master, Master Reigen, said that but…I'm too nervous. Sorry, Tome." Said Mob.

"You wouldn't be nervous if I was your master." Said Tome. Mob looked away. Yes, she would be nervous if it was Master Reigen. She would be extra nervous if it was Master Reigen. She had thought about it so many times…even though he was Master Reigen and twice her age…

"I would be nervous no matter who it was." Said Mob simply

"You are so young." Said Tome. The atmosphere was weird after that. Mob knew that she had done something wrong. She always did something wrong. She was so bad at all of this social stuff and she didn't know how she was supposed to get better.

She wanted to do the stuff Tome wanted to but she also didn't. This feeling made no sense. She wanted something but she also didn't. She always either wanted or didn't want something. Kissing was nice and cuddling was nice but all the other stuff that couples did just felt like it was too much. She asked Master Reigen about this. He always knew just what to do, especially when it came to social things like this.

"Well Mob it's always good to take your partner's….wants…into account but at the end of the day your life is your own. Nobody can make you do anything physically that you aren't ready for. Trust me on this, you don't want to do things too fast. You know yourself better than anyone else. If you aren't ready then you aren't ready and when you are ready…be safe I guess? I mean….I'll talk to you about that later, when I've had more time to prepare…and research…legitimate research!" said Master Reigen. They were in the middle of an exorcism then, well Mob had been in the middle of an exorcism, but he had taken time to make her feel better.

He was really nice like that.

Smart too. He always knew just what to do.

So that was what Mob told Tome. She told Tome that she just was not ready for all of that stuff. She liked kissing, regular kissing, and that was all she was ready for right then. Tome just sighed and laced and kicked the wall a few times. They were in the club room, everyone had gone home for the day. She and Tome usually used this time to kiss. Tome tried to kiss her…well more like adults kissed. Mob had never kissed anyone like that and it was a lot so she told Tome how she felt about all of that.

"Mob, listen, I like you but you are way too young for me! I mean, you're worse than Inukawa! I just….this is something that I can't compromise on! And I'm not going to be a pushy jerk either! So I guess…we're back to being friends." Said Tome looking away from Mob. Mob looked away from her. Were they breaking up? She…she didn't want that…but if that was what Tome wanted…

"Can we still be best friends?" asked Mob

"Well duh! I'm a mature young adult! I can stay friends with my ex's!" said Tome. Mob smiled and hugged her. As long as they could still be friends.

That made the rejection hurt less.


	5. Ichi Mezato

Sometimes it was hard figuring out how you felt about someone.

Mob still liked Tome and they were best friends and all but being around her made Mob feel like her stomach was full of rocks. Or maybe calcium deposits, like her mom's friend's dog had. Whatever it was it was heavy and painful and she didn't like it at all. It was weird to go from kissing someone to not kissing them. To from cuddling someone to not cuddling them. To go from being some's girlfriend to just being all by yourself. It wasn't a good feeling at all.

She told Master Reigen this and he just hugged her. They had been in the office together like normal. She was at her desk, he was at his desk. She told him that she was still sad about being dumped.

"The kid who left the note in your locker? Forget him. Who breaks up with someone with a note anyway? And who the hell says 'romantic capacity'?" Master Reigen had said. It was kind of a slow day so they were talking. They talked a lot on slow days.

"My mom says 'romantic capacity' but this isn't about Shinji. Tome broke up with me." Said Mob. Master Reigen sat up really straight and looked at her for a long time.

"Damn….I am so sorry Mob." He said. Then he walked over to her, bent over, and hugged her. She took a minute to hug him back. It had just been very sudden, she thought, but very nice. He was boney feeling, which was weird because he ate a lot of junk food. He smelled good too. Like smoking and boy's soap and green tea and something that she could only call 'Master Reigen'.

It was nice.

And it made her feel better.

It made her feel a lot of things.

She was sad when he let her go. When he had hugged her she felt that same sort of fluttery nervousness but also that everything was going to be alright. Like if he just hugged her hard enough then she would be OK and everything would be OK. That was dumb, though, because everything was OK. She and Tome were still friends and that made it OK. Except it didn't. Except Mob missed being liked and liking someone. That made no sense though because she had gone fourteen years without being someone's girlfriend so why did she want to be with somebody so badly now?

"Welcome to puberty." Was all Master Reigen had to say to that. Well at first. She just sort of looked at him for a while as she tried to figure the meaning of that statement out. She knew that this was supposed to be a new and confusing time in her life, they said so at school, but they didn't say just how weird and confusing.

And it was very weird and confusing.

She wanted and didn't want things at the exact same time. She wanted to be with someone and she never wanted to put herself in danger of being dumped again. She wanted to kiss someone, not too many specific people, but she was also weary of sharing herself with someone like that again. She wanted to be Master Reigen's….she didn't even know what, but she also didn't even want to examine those feelings. He was twice her age and her Master. She wanted and she didn't want, at the same time. The exact same things at the exact same time with no exact way of knowing which she wanted more so she did nothing because there was just too much to figure out. Stuck if she did, stuck if she didn't. She was a contradiction, like Tome said. Tome. But it was ok, they were still friends.

"….and yeah, it sucks, but you'll get better. For most people it gets better, and you're a great kid. Remember Mob, just keep trying on shoes until you find one that fits." Master Reigen said. So it was a terrible time for everyone, if he was right, which he usually was. He gave good advice, though. She just had to try on another pair of shoes.

"If I keep trying then I'll find my own special someone?" Mob had asked him.

"That's the spirit, Mob!" he had said. Then he ruffled her hair and made it kind of messy. She didn't mind, she could always brush it later when she got home. She just took the time to relish the closeness between the two of them. Keep trying on shoes. She could try on more shoes. When you went to the shoe store you tried on more than one pair of shoes. You stayed there for hours while your mom made you try on shoe after shoe after shoes until she found one that fit just right but also left some room to grow. So Mob just had to go out and see which pair of shoes had enough room to grow while also still fit and was good for school and home.

And by that he had meant that she needed to find another person. Her most perfect person. The person who she wanted to be with and who wanted to be with her.

Tome hadn't been the right person for her because they were of two separate opinions when it came to physical stuff, which was important Master Reigen had said. Tome wanted to and Mob didn't, so they were incompatible like that. Well Mob did and she didn't. She didn't want to lose control of her powers, mostly, and it was also embarrassing. She wasn't a baby, she knew what coupled people did. Well she sort of knew. She knew what they said in health class and what people talked about when there weren't any teachers or boys around. She knew what boys and girls did, anyway. Sort of. Kind of. Well she didn't know everything but what she did know she had…mixed feelings about. It was scary and embarrassing but also…exciting?

But she didn't want to.

But she did.

But what she really wanted was to get this rock, or whatever it was, out of her stomach.

She could do that by finding someone else she liked. Or who liked her. But the only person she liked, she liked in that way, was Master Reigen. She strongly suspected, anyway. She could not confess to him, though, no matter what. Mob knew that she wasn't an expert on socializing or anything like that but she knew that people her age did not date people Master Reigen's age anyway so the way she felt about him didn't matter anyway. She knew that he had no interest what so ever in dating her anyway and that she should keep all the feelings that he made her feel to herself.

Anyway.

So she needed to find someone else. She needed to keep trying on shoes, like Master Reigen said to.

But who?

Mob knew that she couldn't force herself to like someone. That just was not how this worked. You either liked someone like that or you didn't. They also had to like you back. She knew that she wasn't as un-datable as she had previously thought. Plenty of people had liked her. Well, a few people had liked her. That meant that there was something about her worth liking. Also Master Reigen thought that she was pretty and had a wonderful personality.

Too bad she didn't know anybody like Master Reigen.

But she did know a lot of nice people.

Mezato was nice. She was a good friend and very interesting too. She was kind of like Tome but without the shouting. She was passionate about reporting and stuff like that, kind of like Tome was passionate about aliens and videogames and telepathy and the supernatural. That was something that Mob had figured out about herself, she needed someone who was passionate about things. Mezato was passionate about one thing, her work, and things related to her work. She was always gathering information for a story for the school paper, sometimes the regular paper too. Not that she ever got published in the regular paper but she still tried. Mob liked that, she decided, someone who was driven and accomplished. It made up for her lack of drive and accomplishment. Mezato was certainly driven, that was for sure. She was always getting into exciting things, like when she infiltrated the LOL cult. There was also the time she got locked on the school roof all night because she had it on good authority that the staff was plotting to overthrow the headmaster, they weren't but it was a cool story that she could tell. There was the time she tried to dress up like a boy and infiltrate an all boy's school, like Mob did when she had to do that exorcism at Black Vinegar. Unlike Mob she got caught, probably because she actually looked like a girl. She was so pretty, but not Tsubomi pretty. She was more of a Tome sort of pretty. Her eyes were nice and her hair was short but it looked very soft...

But that wasn't what Mob cared about.

She cared about the cool things that Mezato did and all the stuff she accomplished. One time Mezato got her arm stuck in a vending machine to prove that, yes, it could happen and vending machines were dangerous. Of course the only thing that Mob took from that was that if your snack got stuck in the vending machine it was better to call someone to help instead of sticking your arm up there. She even got stuck in an air vent once when she was trying to see if the ramen place near school with the gross broth was really a front for the yakuza. She never found out the truth but she did get to spend the night in an air vent and write about that. It had been an interesting article. Mob had no idea that air vents were so small and dark and dusty. On TV there was always plenty of room to crawl through but that was on TV and Mob knew that she was kind of dumb for thinking that TV was like real life.

Mezato didn't think so, though.

"You're not dumb, I kind of…thought so too. I thought so for like ten seconds until I got stuck." Said Mezato. They were eating lunch together. They did that sometimes. Usually Mob ate alone and Mezato spent her lunch period working but now they were eating together because Mezato was on a forced sabbatical from the school paper until she finished thinking about what she did wrong. Not that Mob knew what she had done wrong, besides trespassing. That was a crime. But journalism was important and nothing mattered more than the right of the people to know the truth. That was important, more important than the law against trespassing, Mezato had said.

Mob would take her word for it. She was the expert after all.

Even though she didn't one hundred percent agree.

"Mob, you can't just let unfair laws like that keep you from the truth. I mean, if everyone always did as they were told then nothing would ever change!" said Mezato

"But change isn't always good…" said Mob. She liked and didn't like change. She liked the change of going to middle school, people were a lot nicer, but middle school came with a lot more social stuff that she had to learn to navigate. Like relationships and stuff.

"That's the good thing about it, you never know what it's going to be. Like before I met you I had no idea that espers were real. You've changed my whole world view." Said Mezato. She was staring at Mob, a lot. Mob stared back. She wondered which kind of staring this was. Was it the 'you're weird' staring that people did sometimes or the 'you have food on your face staring' that people also did. They were eating after all. Maybe it was the 'nothing in particular staring' that she did sometimes and people said that her eyes were weird.

Or maybe it was the 'I like you' staring that Tome did.

But Mob had no way of telling. She hadn't even been able to tell that Tome liked her until Tome asked her to kiss.

Would Mezato want to…?

Mob was not…opposed to kissing….

But she also was. Sort of.

So she said nothing. She didn't know what she wanted to she decided to just get off of that. Even if Mezato was nice and pretty and smart and driven and accomplished…but that didn't mean that Mob liked her. Or that she liked Mob. So she said nothing at all about that.

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing." Asked Mob'

"It's a good thing, believe me." Said Mezato. Mob smiled. That made her feel all…nice. Inside. Did she liked Mezato? Or did she just liked the idea of liking someone? She made sure to remember to ask Master Reigen the next time she had to come into work. She just spent her lunch period enjoying talking to Mezato. The next one, too, and the next.

They sat together and talked every lunch period. When people liked you they wanted to spend time with you. When you liked someone you wanted to spend time with them. Mob liked spending time with Mezato and she wanted to keep on spending time with Mezato. But she didn't know if she liked Mezato or just wanted to be friends with her. Thank goodness that she got called in to work on short notice one day. She didn't even complain, she just needed to see Master Reigen again. To ask him. That was why.

Not because she liked seeing him. She did but she saw him a lot. She looked forward to seeing him…because he was her Master and he was so nice to her. And he looked nice, too. And he cared a lot about what he did. And he was smart. And super driven.

And he gave great advice.

"Well Mob, that's the question isn't it?" he asked after she had asked him. Mob nodded.

"Yes Master, that was my question. How can I tell if I like someone and if someone likes me?" asked Mob

"Well you see….you just sort of know. When you feel that way about someone." Said Master Reigen

"But I can't tell if I like her or I just want to be her friend." Said Mob. He stared at her, then. It was after a job, a weak spirit but she got the weak ones to practice on. They were eating dinner, ramen. It was nice. The last of the cicadas were making their cicada sound, which Mob liked, and the sun was setting so it was kind of cold-ish out. They were sitting in front of the window and the last of the sunlight was hitting them, him, just right. It made his hair look nice. He was leaning back, sort of, and when Mob said that he leaned back a little too much. She was holding onto him with her powers. She didn't want him to fall. That would be awful.

"It's a girl again?" asked Master Reigen

"Yes. Mezato from my class. She's nice to me and interesting and…I think she's pretty…but she's also my friend and I can't tell if I like her or…or if I just want us to be friends." Said Mob

"Well how was it with your last…girlfriend? If you want to answer. If it's too hard for you, I know you just got dumped…I mean you two just made the choice to mutually break up….but if it's too hard then tell me to shut up and mind my own damned business!" said Master Reigen. Mob shook her head. It did hurt, when she thought about it, but she could never tell Master Reigen to shut up or to mind his own business. She liked it when he talked and he wasn't nearly as bad as Ritsu. She had to tell Ritsu, he noticed when she stopped hanging out with Tome. He offered to go and talk to Tome. Mob knew that Ritsu was going to say or do something mean so she begged him not to. Then he started up on his whole 'if she did anything to hurt you' thing which Mob was getting super tired of. Mob of course wouldn't date someone who was mean to her.

"I didn't even know that I liked Tome until she kissed me. Well she asked to kiss me, I like that. I don't like it when people just kiss me." Said Mob

"Mob, everyone should ask before they kiss you. If anyone ever tries to kiss you or…anything else…without your permission then you have my permission to use your powers against them." Said Master Reigen after a long while. He had a low tone, there, and he was holding his tea cup really hard, like he was afraid that it was going to run away.

"I didn't mind it, Master. I don't want to hurt people and-" said Mob

"Not up for debate! Sorry, sorry….it's just…there are a lot of things that can happen to you and…just promise that you'll never let anyone…I mean…don't let anyone make you do anything that you aren't comfortable with. Make him, them, ask before they try to…and you ask too! That's important! Always ask!" said Master Reigen. Mob nodded. She followed that string of half sentences alright, she thought. She strung them together into him telling her that she shouldn't go around kissing people without asking or letting other people kiss her without asking first. That made sense. Like how you always had to ask before you touched someone and keep a hula hoop of space between you and everyone else like they taught her back in elementary school.

"Because there are a lot of things that can happen to you out there and I won't…I can't always be there for you." Said Master Reigen

"But you're always there for me, Master." Said Mob

"I mean physically, Mob. Just…there are a lot of bad things that can happen to a sweet girl like you. That's all." Said Master Reigen

"That's what Ritsu said. Please don't act like Ritsu." Said Mob

"What's he done?" asked Master Reigen

"He keeps on asking me if I'm ok, which I don't mind that much, but he also keeps on telling me that he'll make sure that nobody ever hurts me, which would be good but he keeps on scaring away people that like me. I don't like it when he's mean to people and I don't want him to be mean to people on my account. Also he kept on coming into my room without knocking when Tome was there with me and before my mom said that I had to keep my door opened." Said Mob

"You're only fourteen, Mob, keep your door opened." Said Master Reigen

"Oh no…you are being like Ritsu…" said Mob

"No, I'm not. I just don't want you to…the phrase is one thing led to another…just keep your door opened when you have…uh…romantic company…goddammit I sound like MY mother. Heh. You're definitely growing up, Mob." Said Master Reigen

"Is that a bad thing?" asked Mob. Sometimes it sure felt like a bad thing.

"No, not at all. This is just another chapter in your life. Lots of change, some of it good and some of it bad. You'll look back at this and laugh, trust me. You'll look back at these times when you're my age and laugh…" said Master Reigen

"It doesn't feel funny right now. I mean I feel funny but not 'ha-ha' funny." Said Mob

"Well you're figuring yourself out. Like with your friend here. I know that it's confusing, I have no idea how confusing because I've never been in this particular…predicament. Not that there's anything with you being…whatever word you want to apply to yourself-" said Master Reigen

"If you mean that I like boys and girls the word is bi-sexual. I looked it up on Google." Said Mob. She got the word for what she was, which was nice she liked having the words for things, and also a lot of information about things that she would rather…figure out later in life.

"Mob! Not so loud…not that there's anything wrong with that!" said Master Reigen. Mob nodded even though she didn't think that she was talking that loudly and she also didn't know why he said that there was nothing wrong with the way she was talking right after he told her to stop talking so loudly.

"Just…you're predicament! I say just spend a lot of time with this girl. Talk to her, take an interest in her interests, and then examine how you feel. Ask her, too, if she feels the same way as you do, if you have those feelings. She might be going through the same predicament that you are." Said Master Reigen. He gave good advice. Mob would do just that. She would ask Mezato how she felt…after she spent more time with Mezato and got her own feelings sorted.

So the next time that they had lunch Mob sat down with Mezato first. Usually Mezato went to her desk but today Mob decided to come and sit next to her. If she wanted Mob to go away she would say so and if she wanted Mob to stay…well then that would be very nice.

They said their hellos and sat down to their lunches. Mob was struck with the feeling that she should say something. Maybe she was being too quiet, she got that a lot. Maybe if she was too quiet Mezato would think that she didn't like her, as a friend or anything else. She should say something, anything. Come on, just talk. You know how to talk. Talk about something, anything. Make words.

"I'm glad that they got you out. That must have been scary for you and I'm sorry if you were scared at all. If I had been there I could have just pulled you out with my powers, if you were scared. Because you're my friend and I wouldn't want you to be scared or trapped or anything like that." Said Mob remembering the latest of Mezato's adventures. She looked up from her phone suddenly. Oh no, Mob had interrupted her and she was probably annoyed and now-

"I wasn't scared, it was kind of cool, actually. For like an hour. Then it was just boring. I didn't even have room to get my phone out and call for help or watch something or read something or anything. I couldn't even take notes, I had to write about what happened strictly from memory." Said Mezato

"Was it hard? I mean, you have a really good memory. You remember things that people wouldn't even notice. In your articles I mean." Said Mob

"Well, yeah, I take good notes. But yes, thank you, I do have a good memory. A sharp mind is a reporter's greatest skill." Said Mezato

"Well then you're a really good reporter. I mean, I think so." Said Mob

"Thanks Mob. You're a good…esper, I guess. I mean, I've never met any other psychics before but you're pretty cool." Said Mezato. Mob usually didn't much care for being complimented on her powers. She was more than her powers, they were just another part of her, like Master Reigen had said. But hearing Mezato compliment her like that made her smile and her face get a little pink, not full on red she could feel it, and her hair started to float. Braids today, because her hair had been floating a lot lately.

"So is that something you're trying to do or does it just happen?" asked Mezato taking out her tiny notebook.

"It just happens." Said Mob not caring that Mezato was taking notes. She just…she liked it when Mezato talked to her.

"For no reason or does something trigger it?" asked Mezato

"When I feel big feelings. Like if I'm sad or surprised or mad or happy. I'm happy right now." Said Mob

"Really? What's got you so happy? Last I heard Kurata dumped you. That was really brave by the way, just openly going out with her like that." Said Mezato

"Why was it brave?" asked Mob confused

"Because, you know, you're both girls." Said Mezato

"Why is that brave? If people like each other then they should go out." Said Mob. Mezato either meant brave as in it was brave of Tome to confess to her when she could have been rejected. She also could have meant brave in the sense that sometimes people didn't like it when people went out with people who were the same as them. Mob didn't care if two boys or two girls loved each other. Love was a beautiful thing and it should be shared with whoever shared those feelings with you. Liking someone, too.

"You're right. It shouldn't be a brave thing. Forget what other people say. It's none of their business anyway. You're so wise, Mob. Like a great monk or something." Said Mezato. Mob smiled, her normal smile, which was pretty small but there. Now she was really starting to turn pink.

"I think that you're smart too, Mezato. I never would have thought to do half of the things you do for your reporting." Said Mob

"It's really not that much planning. I just get an idea and I go with it." Said Mezato

"Brave then. That's a good word for it, too. You're brave, like the time you disguised yourself as a boy to sneak into that school. I had to do that once for an exorcism. It was so scary, I thought that I was going to get found out but I didn't." said Mob. Mezato was writing so fast that her pen was scratching super loud against her tiny notebook.

"Was this that thing that happened at Black Vinegar? The thing that was on the news?" asked Mezato

"Yes. I had to dress up as a boy because nobody would sell my Master a girl's school uniform because people thought that he was a weirdo, he said. So he bought me a boy's one but he couldn't find one in his size and he sent me in on my own. I exorcised the spirit and I met this boy, Teru, but he was Hanazawa to me then, and got into a fight because he thought that I was trying to dethrone him, he said, but I really wasn't. Then a few days later a bunch of guys from Black Vinegar kidnapped me and tied me up, but I could escape at any time, and then I met Teru again and we had a great big fight and I accidentally beat him up, shaved his head, and ripped off all of his clothes. In self-defense, not on purpose. And I didn't look either, because he was naked and that would have been rude and embarrassing. I also destroyed his school on accident but then I put it back together. I put it back together on purpose. I destroyed it on accident." Said Mob. She didn't mean to say so much, it just sort of all came out. She liked it, that Mezato was paying attention to her. That Mezato was listening to her. That she was paying such rapt attention and was taking notes and the whole thing just made her feel all nice inside.

Mob told Master Reigen about this, how nice she felt when Mezato listened to her. Did that mean that she liked Mezato?

"Probably, if it's the same feeling as you had with that other girl, but I can't tell you for sure or anything. You know yourself best, Mob. If you like this girl then you should tell her and see where it goes. Maybe she'll say yes and maybe she won't. You don't know unless you try. This is the time in your life to take these kinds of chances. Trust me, practice this while you're young." He had said. That made sense. She should just come out and ask…even though the thought of coming out and asking scares her. She's been rejected. She knows how much it hurts…but she's also done the rejecting and that was hard too. She doesn't want to put her friend in that position. So maybe she should just…leave it be? But she did sort of like Mezato…but she had no idea if Mezato liked her back. Maybe Mezato was waiting for Mob to confess…but maybe she wasn't and she would get rejected. Ritsu was super sad and embarrassed when he confessed to that girl, probably Hanako from student council because he said that he asked out someone he shouldn't have and had to take a sabbatical, and this was Ritsu. If he could be affected like that by being shot down then what would happen to her?

Not that she would talk about this with Ritsu. He never liked it when people liked her or she liked people. He thought that she was going to get hurt. Maybe she was. If she confessed then maybe she would get hurt, so hurt that she would have to take a sabbatical. It would have to be one from lunch time, or maybe from school itself because Mezato was in her homeroom class. But then again Mezato could say yes and then they could hang out outside of school and hold hands and cuddle and maybe even kiss.

Not that Mob liked Mezato for kissing reasons.

But she did like kissing.

Regular kissing, not like how adults kissed.

Not that she would ask Mezato to kiss her.

That would be way too much.

But she would maybe confess to Mezato. She just…she would do this. She would do this at some point. She wanted…she wanted to be someone's girlfriend and Mezato was someone that she liked. She just needed to find the courage to actually confess. It wouldn't be hard to find the time. They spent nearly every lunch period together. They talked a lot. Well Mob did most of the talking, Mezato did the listening. Mezato liked it when Mob talked. Maybe it was like how Mob liked it when Tome told her things. Mob didn't talk about the things she talked about with Tome, videogames and anime and stuff. Mezato didn't have time for things like that. Mezato was interested in stories about work, mostly, and how her powers worked. Mob knew that she was more than her powers but…if it made Mezato happy. If it kept Mezato's attention…then she didn't mind.

So she told Mezato more stories about interesting things that happened to her. She told her about exorcisms that she went on, spirits that she met, fun times with her and Master, things like that. Mezato told her things too. How her dad was a reporter, a good one, for a big paper in Tokyo. That was where he lived. She lived with her mom. Her parents were separated, which made Mob sad for Mezato. Mezato said that she didn't mind. She wasn't a little kid anymore and she couldn't let things like that impede her work. Nothing could impede her work. Not rules, not laws, and not her own dumb feelings, she had said.

Mob told her that feelings were never dumb. Feelings were important and that if you felt something than you should do something about it. Mezato then helpfully pointed out that Mob stuffed down all of her feelings so she wasn't one to talk. That wasn't true.

"I don't stuff down all my feelings, just the big ones. When I feel something I try to understand it and see what I should do about it. Like how when my brother is bothering me and I get annoyed or even a little mad I tell him so because my feelings are telling me that something is wrong….or like when I like someone. When I like someone and they like me I tell them that I like them back." Said Mob. They always told her first, people who liked her. Or they wanted to but Ritsu stopped them. He said that he would stop doing that, though, so that was good. It was still annoying though, when she thought about it. The way that he thought that he could run her life for her like that. Well she could run her own life and she was running it. She liked Mezato, maybe, and she was choosing to spend time with Mezato in order to both enjoy their friendship and also to, maybe, give Mezato a chance to confess.

"But you still have to repress your emotions." Said Mezato

"Not always." Said Mob

"Well I guess that I'm like that, too. If I just went around letting myself dwell on things I won't get anything done. I'll never be a reporter if I let my feelings get in the way of my work. Like if I got upset every time I got rejected then I would never submit anything and then I'll never be what I want to be." Said Mezato

"That makes sense. I guess we are the same like that. If I let my feelings get so big that they control me then I can lose control and then I won't be able to be what I want to be. I mean, I'm not as sure of what I want to be as you are. I want to be what I am now, I guess. I mean that I want to keep it up. I want to keep up what I have now." Said Mob

"But you could be so much more than what you are now! Mob, you could be great!" said Mezato

"….you really think so?" asked Mob

"Of course I do! Mob, you're amazing. You shouldn't just languish here. Think of everything that you could be!" said Mezato

"I like what I am now…but if…I mean if I could be more than I wouldn't mind it." Said Mob not entirely sure how to say it. It all came out as a big muddled mess where she wasn't even sure what it was that she was saying. She had wanted to say something to the affect of 'if you like me then please tell me because I think I like you' but she couldn't.

"Really! Great! Because there's this sort of…religious group that's been looking for you and-" said Mezato. Mob shook her head.

"That's not what I meant." Said Mob. Mezato had mentioned them before, the ones who put up the posters with the drawings of her. Psycho helmet religion looking for leader. Well she didn't really want to be a part of that. She liked it when Mezato paid attention to her because she liked Mezato but she didn't want a bunch of people to pay attention to her just because of her powers. Or to make her a religious leader. She wasn't a leader, she knew this about herself.

"But Mob! Come on, what can it hurt? They're all looking for guidance and you're really wise and-" said Mezato

"I don't want to be a religious leader. I don't want to be any kind of leader." Said Mob

"But you just said that you wouldn't mind being more than an ordinary middle school student." Said Mezato

"No…that's not what I meant. I meant…sorry. Sometimes it can be hard for me to figure out the right words for things." Said Mob. She and Mezato were alone, sort of. They were eating lunch together like they had taken to doing. She wanted to ask Mezato if she felt the same way. If maybe they could…but then again if she did ask then what if Mezato said no? But what if she said yes? Mob didn't like the feeling of being rejected, it lingered, and it took a while for it to dissipate. Mob liked the feeling of being in a relationship, though. It felt warm and nice, like sitting in front of a heater on a cold winter's day, almost.

"It's ok, take you time." Said Mezato, her pen poised above her ever present tiny notebook. Of course that just made Mob more nervous. She had to choose the right words because they would be immortalized in graphite and notebook paper for the rest of eternity. She waited a long second before she collected her thoughts. Tome had just come out and said it. That was how it was supposed to go, then.

So Mob just came out and said it.

"I like you." Said Mob suddenly and quickly. There was a moment of silence between the two of them. Mezato held her pen above her notebook. She wasn't writing anything down. This was worse than a no, the suspense. It was like opening Christmas presents but worse because at least with Christmas presents you got the joy of receiving something. This was more like waiting for final grades to be posted, Mob decided. Either you did well or you didn't and you got lectured. Except rejection was worse than being lectured.

"I like you too, Mob. As a friend, I mean. I think you're really cool and all but I don't like girls like that, that is if you meant it like that. If not please ignore that last statement." Said Mezato after a while.

"…I did…" said Mob. Well then wasn't she dumb? She wanted to crawl onto the floor, lay there, and die. She's just lay there until she died of old age or embarrassment, whichever came first. Her hair started to act up again. She could feel her braid and bangs sticking straight up.

"Hey, come on, don't be like that. We're still friends. Now tell me more about the tunnel spirits. You never did finish that story. So your Master just covered his fist in table salt and punched out an evil spirit?" asked Mezato. Mob found her voice quickly. She was always up for talking about Master Reigen. This wasn't that bad of a rejection. She and Mezato were just incompatible like that. That was fine and Mob was dumb. Of course not everyone would be like she was. She was dumb for assuming that. She was dumb but now she had learned a very valuable lesson. Make sure that the person that you are asking out is attracted to your gender.

Master Reigen agreed with her, when she told him what happened. She came in the door looking gloomy, his words, and she said that she was just a little sad, her words.

"I was just really dumb and now I feel all sad and embarrassed and also I think that I made the bad feeling that I've had from Tome breaking up with me worse and I don't know what to do about it." She said. Master Reigen had a minute between clients. He had just finished a back pain curse removal and just had to wait for someone to pick up their newly exorcised spirit photo.

"That's normal Mob, it's all normal. I can't believe I forgot to tell you to make sure that this girl actually liked girls. This is on me, Mob, and I'm sorry." Said Master Reigen

"No, it's on me. I should have thought to ask. I just…how do you even ask without being rude? I mean, it's a personal question and I know that you're not supposed to just start asking personal questions." Said Mob

"Well usually you read the signals that someone's putting out but in your case I would just bite the bullet and ask." Said Master Reigen

"Just…ask?" asked Mob. He nodded.

"Just come out and ask." Said Master Reigen

"But…I don't think that I can. I can barely even confess let alone…" said Mob

"Well this is the time in your life to practice all of this. Hang on, let me see what time it is…" he said. He clicked his phone on.

"Ok, great. We have some time. Ok, stand up." Said Master Reigen. Mob stood up slowly. She didn't know what she was standing up for but Master Reigen asked her to and of course she would listen. He walked over to the middle of the room. She walked over to him.

"Ok, now confess to me." He said. Mob blinked. The blinds all opened. Her hair stood straight up like a startled cat's. What? What?!

"Master!?" said Mob. Did he know? Did he know how she felt? Could he just tell? He was good at feelings stuff like this….could he tell and did he…why did he want her to confess to him.

"Pretend I'm that girl from today, the one you like, or whatever other girl you like. Or guy. Whichever, I'm open minded. You've got to practice so you might as well get some no stakes practice in. Just say it enough times to where it's comfortable for you." Said Master Reigen. Mob blinked. Her braids hung back down to her mid back where they belonged. Oh. He wasn't confessing to her.

"If you want to, that is. I just thought that you could get some practice in so your next confession goes better. Trust me, you want to get this out of the way while you're young." Said Master Reigen

"…ok…" said Mob

"So just say it until it becomes second nature. Practice makes perfect." Said Master Reigen. Mob nodded and was silent for a little bit, a long little bit.

"….I like you. Please go out with me…." Said Mob softly. He made a hmm sort of noise.

"A little louder and drop the please. Something more like, 'would you like to go out with me'. The please makes it sound desperate and let me tell you nobody likes desperation…even when she says she does…" he muttered the last part.

"Huh?" asked Mob. She wondered who he had been talking about. She never saw him with any girls, or women she guessed because he was so old. Did he…did he like someone. The thought lights a fire in her, a mean sort of one. It's not a good feeling, the thought of him liking someone, of him confessing to someone. She wants to exorcise this emotion.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Try again, remember, louder." Said Master Reigen

"I like you. Would you like to go out with me?" asked Mob louder than before. The thought of him liking someone….of him saying this to someone…and this was such a gross feeling! She didn't like it. It was like she was mad and scared at the same time.

"That's better, much better. How about one more time before the client shows up…if he ever shows up…" said Master Reigen once again muttering the last part.

"I like you! Would you like to go out with me?!" said Mob a little too loud. She felt like if she spoke loudly enough this feeling would go away. He shook his head.

"Go with the second one. You don't want to scare her off, or him. Not that you could ever be scary! People just get kind of sensitive in times like that. See though, you've just got to say that and see what answer you get. Just say what you feel and feel what you say and then you'll get your answer. Remember, you win some and you lose some but you've got to try." He said. It seemed like he was getting ready to say more but then the client showed up. Mob took that time to hide in the bathroom until that feeling went away.

What was it? Not the normal feeling of butterflies in her stomach that she usually got around him. It was more like fear and anger mixed together. The thought of him with some other girl…some woman. She was a girl. He was a man and men dated women. Girls dates boys and men dated women and men also dated men and women also dated women but women did not date girls and men did not date girls and everyone dated people their own age so she had no reason to feel like this.

So then why did she?

Jealous.

She found the word.

She was jealous.

She didn't much care for this feeling at all.


	6. Sho Suzuki

Sho Suzuki was not an orphan, despite what mom thought.

He just liked hanging out at their house a lot, that was all. He was over a lot, especially at night. He was a night person, Mob figured. Some people were night people and some people were day people. Mob was more of a day person, not a night person, but not a morning person either. Ritsu was a morning person, that was what worried her about Sho coming over all the time. Ritsu liked to get up early in the morning but he couldn't if he was up all night hanging out with Sho.

That was why Mob worried.

That was why Mob cared whether or not Sho was sneaking into their house at all hours of the night.

She knew when he was there, she could feel his aura. She felt his aura long before she saw him. Red, all red. His dad's aura had been two colors but she didn't want to think about him. She didn't want to think about the explosions and the screaming and being thrown through the air and the part where a bunch of her skin got burnt off or the part where Sho's dad spun her around by the hair or-

She didn't like to think about that. It was fine, now, because it was over. It was over and now she had made a bunch of new friends and the house was put back together and she had put the city back together after absorbing all of that energy and everything was ok. She needed to focus on the positives, like Master Reigen said to. She made new friends and everyone was ok. That was what mattered.

Ritsu made a new friend, too, which was also very good.

So Mob shouldn't worry about him. But she still did, she still cared.

Mob loved Ritsu and she was so glad that he had made such a good friend. Even if he did burn down their house and make her think that her family was dead. That was over now and they could all put the past behind them, Master Reigen's words, and get on with their lives, also his words. That was why she was totally ok with the fact that Sho was in her house in the middle of the night right there in the next room, which was Ritsu's room. She was fine with this.

Really.

She could hear them through the walls, sort of. Muffled talking, loud talking, then shushing. Sho talking and Ritsu shushing him and then the two of them talking some more. Sounds, human speech, but unintelligible through the walls. Not that Mob was sitting with her head pressed against the wall specifically to hear anything. This was just where she felt like sitting. She wished that she knew what they were talking about, but that was nosy of her to wish. She could not be nosy, that wouldn't be very nice. She hadn't liked it when Ritsu had been nosy and therefore she could not be nosy. Treat others as you would want to be treated and all of that. She wasn't trying to listen in on them anyway. She was just sitting there and if she should so happen to hear what they were talking about then that was that.

Not that she had any idea what they would be talking about. She knew Ritsu, the things he liked to talk about, they were brother and sister after all, but she didn't know a thing about Sho. He was really more Ritsu's friend and she knew that she needed to respect her brother's space, not that he had ever respected hers. Even though she was curious. She was curious as to what, exactly, did Sho like to talk about? Sho, what was he like? She knew pretty much nothing about him, just that his dad was kind of a jerk but he wasn't, but she sort of…wanted to. He was in her house after all. She wanted to know about the people who were in her house.

Like what it was like.

What it was like to be him?

To be someone like him.

She knew one other esper kid, Teruki Hanazawa, or just Teru, but they didn't hang out super often. He was busy with his friends and clubs and movie watching and bike riding and putting together outfits that didn't exactly match but he still looked good in, which took up a lot of time, he said. So she didn't see him that often, often enough to ask him all the questions that she wanted to ask. Questions about powers, why they had them, and what they were supposed to do with them.

Mob knew that she had to save people, that was why.

But Master Reigen said that there was no why to it, the universe didn't work in whys and hows, it just worked and you had to work with what you got. Having psychic powers didn't make you any more or any less than other people. She knew this, Master told her so, but she still…she wanted to know why. Why did she have these powers, especially since neither of her parents did? How did people even get powers if it wasn't hereditary? Teru said that neither of his parents had powers either. Sho's dad did, but not his mom, and she wanted to ask him how it all worked.

But she didn't. She didn't ask him because she didn't know him that well and she knew not go asking personal questions of people that she didn't know that well.

But she did want to know him that well, and not because she had starting asking the big questions, as Master Reigen had called them. She wanted to know where he went when he wasn't at their house, because he had to live somewhere. Serizawa said that he lived wherever he wanted to, which Mob didn't get at all. He was Ritsu's age, he couldn't just up and live wherever he pleased. Didn't anyone worry about him? Mob knew that if she were in someone else's house late at night mom and dad would worry.

Did his mom worry?

Her mom called him an orphan. She knew that his dad was in prison and he didn't like to stay with his mom, Ritsu had said once. Mom said that it was a very sad thing and that Sho could come over whenever he wanted. She probably didn't want Sho to come over in the middle of the night, though, so Mob said nothing.

Mob wondered why he didn't stay with his mother. In his dad's memories, what she had seen anyway, he really was close to his mom. Not that it was any of Mob's business. Not that it was her place to ask. Not that she was planning on asking him any personal questions. Where he went when he wasn't there. What he liked to do when he wasn't hanging out at her house. What shows he liked to watch. What music he liked to listen to. How he got his hair to stand up like that all the time.

Not that Mob would ever ask.

She hardly spoke to him. He was always with Ritsu when they were together and Mob didn't much care for the things that they did together. Play fighting, arguing, fighting games,…generally a lot of fighting. Mob had never really cared much for fighting and after what happened she knew that she had her fill of it for the rest of her life. She didn't even like making her pokemon battle anymore, and they weren't even real.

Sho liked fighting, though, but it was maybe a boy thing.

Mob was just glad that it was play fighting, she had enough real fighting to last her a lifetime.

Though sometimes she worried, like now. There was a thump against the wall and then some cursing, some of it from Ritsu, which wasn't good because he shouldn't say things like that. Especially not to his best friend, not that Mob knew for sure if Sho was Ritsu's best friend, though they did hang out a lot. She wondered if they had finally crossed the line into really fighting. She heard another thump and then something falling over. That could be bad. She got up and walked over to Ritsu's room.

She knew that closed doors meant 'don't' come in' so unlike Ritsu she knocked. She knocked quietly, though, because mom and dad might wake up. If they woke up now then they'd know that Sho was over and then they'd get upset and then there would be a great big fight and Ritsu might even get in trouble and then the atmosphere in the house would be tense and Mob did not want that. Not at all.

So she was relieved when the door opened.

"Hey Ritsu's big sis, what's up?" asked Sho. He was standing in the doorway but Mob could see behind him. There was a nest of blankets on the ground for him and a glowing DS in the pile. Ritsu was sitting on his bed but he wasn't looking at her even though she was trying to look at him.

"Are you guys fighting? It sounded like you were fighting." Said Mob slightly worried, just slightly. Sho leaned in the doorway. She couldn't really see Ritsu anymore.

"Nope. Not at all. No fighting going on in here. None whatsoever. Anyway, how's your night going? Getting enough sleep? Any interesting dreams you'd like to discuss?" asked Sho. She let her aura touch his. He was happy. She could tell because auras were just so much easier to read than faces. They practically screamed what the person was feeling at you. Sho's aura stretched farthr than Ritsu's and was brighter, probably because he'd had his powers since he was little.

"I haven't been asleep so I haven't dreamt. I don't usually dream that often. What about you?" asked Mob because, well, that was the polite thing to do. Well the polite to do would also have been not to whisper but it was late and mom and dad were asleep.

"When I dream it's nothing good. Sometimes it's really bizarre. Like, ok, I had this one dream where I was in school, even though I don't go to school because I've got more important things to do with my time, but I was in school then and I get there and everyone else is naked. I'm dressed and everyone else is all 'why are you wearing clothes? You're a weirdo' and I was all 'no way, you guys are the weirdos' so then-" said Sho before a pillow hit him over the head.

"I'm fine, sister, you can go back to bed." Said Ritsu before the door closed. She could see his aura there. That was his doing, which was good, because she was super red. She laughed a little, that breathy sort of laugh she did, because it was kind of funny. She had a dream like that too, but in reverse, and it was not funny. Embarrassing. But the reverse of it could be funny. Well, if you were Sho. It was still kind of embarrassing. She went back to her room and flopped down on her futon. She laughed again, this time a little louder, because even though the situation would have been embarrassing the way Sho told it, well, he made it funny.

Ritsu didn't seem to think so.

"Don't say stuff like that to my sister, ok? You embarrassed her." that was Ritsu. Mob could hear them clearly through the wall, well probably because she was so close to it. She was embarrassed but not super embarrassed. Not like the time when she fell and her skirt flew up. Yes, that had been much more embarrassing….would mom still say no to the whole changing schools thing?

"She asked. Come it, you've got to admit it, it's a weird dream. Like, what does it mean?" Sho asked. Mob figured that it meant something like 'always make sure to read the atmosphere' because that seemed like an atmosphere reading situation. Of course Mob wasn't sure of an atmosphere where everyone in a room would be just hanging out naked together but that was dream logic.

"That you're deeply disturbed and should seek professional help." Ritsu said, which Mob thought was kind of mean, but they talked like that to each other sometimes.

"Yeah, maybe I should commit myself. Maybe then those jerks from child services will leave mom and me alone. I don't want to go to school. I haven't gone to school since I was seven, why do I need to go now? It's so dumb…" then they got kind of quiet. Mob stopped pressing quite so much against the wall because now it was beginning to feel like eavesdropping.

She learned something new about Sho.

He didn't go to school? How did that work? Well his dad did think he was a shonen villain so Mob figured that Sho's life was anything but ordinary. He was anything but ordinary. He was interesting. He could make things that weren't funny, funny, and things that were funny, well, super funny. Like how sometimes he and Ritsu would watch funny animal videos on his phone, sometimes Mob was invited to join them, and he'd put his own commentary in for the animals like it was what they were saying.

He could even make hamsters funny, and they really weren't.

But he seemed to like them.

Mob didn't know what they were saying behind that wall but she assumed that it was not hamster related. She wanted to know what they were saying, she wanted to know more about Sho, the mysterious boy who came seemingly out of nowhere, but not really because he was supposed to be living with his mom. He was so…interesting. Not ordinary. Even the way he looked. She had never seen anyone with naturally red hair before, it was a nice color. She wondered if it he did anything to make it stand up like that or if it just grew like that. She wondered if it was stiff or soft to the touch. Not that she would ever touch his hair.

Because that was not socially acceptable.

But his hair was cool. His eyes were nice too, blue. Not that deep sort of blue that Master Reigen's were or the grey sort of blue that Teru's were. Sho's eyes were a sort of crystal blue. Super clear and kind of…sharp looking? If that was the word, it was the closest that Mob could come to describing it. Sharp and always sort of looking at everything. Not that Mob spent a lot of time looking at his eyes, or at least she thought that she didn't.

It was later in the day, but not that same day that she had been eavesdropping. This was a different day and Sho was over during the day and it was a weekend. Master Reigen didn't need her that day, he had Serizawa now, but he was not replacing her at all. She was irreplaceable, he said, but he wanted to give her more time to spend with her friends. That was nice and all but she did miss him.

She had spent enough time with her friends over that awful two weeks that they were fighting.

But now she and Master Reigen were not fighting anymore. They were friends again, not that they had ever stopping being friends, but now they were the sort of friends who didn't say mean things to each other and made more of an effort so think about each other, he had said. Well he said that he was sorry and he would never say mean things to her ever again and that he would make more of an effort to think about her.

She was so glad that he was back.

And she missed him.

That was what had gotten her thinking about eyes, specifically blue eyes. She didn't see that many pairs of blue eyes, this was Japan after all. She knew that Master Reigen was only half Japanese, that was why he looked the way he did. Teru too. She wondered what Sho was. His hair was red, his skin was pale and freckled, and his eyes were blue. Super blue. The colored part of his eyes, Mob couldn't remember what it was called, was clear. She could see the little line things in his…iris! Yes, that was the word. She could see the little lines in his iris that made it expand and contract. They reacted to light but they weren't doing anything now because they were inside, in the living room, and there was a pleasant amount of light. It made his hair look super red, too. It was nice.

She stared at lot. People always said that she stared at lot. She couldn't help it, her eyes just sort of rested places. This was one of those times. She had just caught sight of his eyes because she was thinking about eyes and now her eyes had rested on his eyes and they were really nice and now he was staring right back.

They stared for a while. She scooted back from him a little. She could feel him looking at her, and it was a physical feeling. The hairs on the back of her arms and neck were standing up and her stomach was doing flip flops, but only the feeling of it. She tried to scoot back but she felt his powers stopping her.

"No cheating. You may have started it, Ritsu's big sis, but I'm ending it." He said with seriousness that Mob had never heard from him. He was so serious that it sounded too serious, comically serious, and she felt herself smiling a little. Her little smile, not her big smile, not that they were that different. She didn't know what he meant but his powers were keeping her from scooting back, though she knew that she could easily shove him aside with her own powers, but she didn't because this was nice.

It was.

"What are you doing?" asked Ritsu. He was back from the kitchen. He was making popcorn, Sho was hungry and Ritsu didn't know how to make much else, but now he was done making popcorn and he was standing up in front of them and he was making his Ritsu face. Mob had no idea why. If he wanted something other than popcorn he should have asked Mob to make something. Mom was starting to teach her how to cook more things now, because she was growing up, mom's words.

"Hey! You tainted my victory! I was about to beat your sister in a staring contest, do you know how cool that would be? It would be like beating a fish in a swimming contest, or a professional napper in a sleeping contest! Ok Ritsu's big sis, come on, and this time no outside interference. Best two out of three." Sho said. Oh. That was what he was doing. Ok then, Mob didn't mind.

"You're ridiculous, now move, you're in my spot." Said Ritsu. He sat down between her and Sho. Sho scooted back so hard the couch scraped against the floor, which mom would not like later. She liked things neat and tidy. Mob knew that mom also wouldn't like the fact that Sho was trying to toss popcorn into Ritsu's mouth and Ritsu was doing the same. Such a mess.

It looked like fun, though.

But they wouldn't let Mob play. Ritsu was sitting sideways and blocking her entire view.

So she moved far to the side and got hit in the forehead with a piece of popcorn for her troubles. She caught that piece with her powers and threw it right back at Sho. He caught it and threw it back to her. It turned into a game of powers popcorn ping pong, Sho ended up calling it later on, until mom came downstairs to see what all the noise was about. After that they had to clean up and to clean up and go upstairs because they had made a mockery of the living room and what if company dropped by, mom's words.

Mob got to stay downstairs because mom said that she knew that Mob had no part in making the mess. Mob didn't correct her because she didn't want to be sent to her room. She had her shows to catch up on, anyway. There was this one show that everyone said was kind of like EVA and really good until it got really bad but you couldn't totally trust other people's opinions on what was good and what was bad because some people didn't like the ending of the EVA series even though it made perfect sense and tied everything together nicely and she would argue with them, mostly Ritsu, about it until the sun came up, which only happened once or twice.

She wondered if Sho liked EVA.

Maybe, he did like fighting and there was a lot of fighting in EVA. Plus Pen-Pen was funny and he loved animals. What shows did he like? She wanted to ask him, or just ask him to come downstairs to watch TV with her so she could learn what he liked more…naturally. Just by hanging out with him. He might like this show, lots of fighting and stuff…but there was also a love story and most boys didn't like them. Even Master Reigen said that a lot of romantic subplots were tacked on to perfectly good shows and movies, apparently that was what ruined that Junk Food Fighter show he said he was too old for but also sometimes still watched. Still this didn't feel tacked on, it even had a lot of that stuff in it that boys liked. lots of weird angles and girls being cute and stuff like that. Mob didn't get it, boys were weird like that.

Thank goodness that Ritsu had better taste than that.

She wanted Ritsu to be downstairs watching TV with her too, not just Sho, but he was upstairs to where he was banished to for the crime of throwing popcorn. Not that Mob got why mom was so upset, it was only popcorn. It wasn't like the time when she was five and she forgot her grape Popsicle on the white couch that they used to have. That had been bad. It really wasn't fair. It doubly wasn't fair that mom said that she could stay downstairs because it had obviously been the boys, her words. Mob could make a mess just as well as they could and she had been a part of it too. Why didn't mom banish her upstairs too? Even if she was in her room they could have still hung out together. The walls were kind of thin, they could have talked…not that there was anything stopping her from getting up and going upstairs.

But would that have been weird?

She had no reason to go upstairs besides wanting to hang out with them but…she felt kind of weird. The idea of just knocking on Ritsu's door and asking to hang out with him and Sho made her feel weird. Like she was intruding or something. Because Sho was Ritsu's friend, she decided, not hers. They were on good terms but that didn't mean that they were good friends like he and Ritsu were.

Was this how Ritsu felt?

When she had Tome over was this how Ritsu felt? Left out but also like he was intruding if he joined them…not that it had ever stopped him.

When was it ok and not ok to ask someone to hang out?

She brought this question to Master Reigen the next time she saw him. It was after school. She had just missed Serizawa, he was going to night school so that he could better rejoin society. He stopped going to school when he was only twelve. His mom was nice like that. Her mom didn't even let her stay home from school that one time she fell down and everyone saw her underwear, or the time when she was in elementary school and accidentally called the teacher 'mom'. School was important, mom had said, without school she couldn't grow up and have a good job and meet a nice man and get married and have a family.

Mob already had a good job and Master Reigen was a nice man but she was way too young to even think about getting married and starting a family.

But she still had to go to school. Everyone did, even adults like Serizawa. Of course Sho didn't want to go but the people from children's services were trying to tell his mom to make him go. They were making him go to school and get caught up on his shots and meet with a talking doctor every week to talk about his feelings and a lot of other stuff that he didn't want to do. Not that he had told Mob this, she had just heard Sho and Ritsu talking through the wall. She wanted to go into Ritsu's room and hang out with them but she didn't know if it was socially appropriate, so she asked Master Reigen.

"So there's a Sho now?" was the first thing that Master Reigen had said. He had a tone there, one that Mob couldn't read.

"Yes. Remember? He's Suzuki's son, the red haired boy with the blue eyes and the freckles?" said Mob. He made a hmmm noise and leaned back in his chair.

"And he's always hanging out at your house?" asked Master Reigen

"Yes. Not all the time but a lot of the time. He's more Ritsu's friend than mine but I would like to be better friends with him." said Mob. Master Reigen made another hmmm noise and then let a cigarette. That meant that he was thinking. He told her a while ago that he had started smoking when he was fourteen partially to look cool and partially to have something to do with his hands. Cigarettes were good for that, they gave you something to do so you could think, he had said, but then he made her promise to never, ever, ever start smoking.

"Well Mob, I'm not entirely sure what you should do. He's your brother's best friend, it seems like, so it's tricky territory. On the one hand it's your house but on the other hand it's his room. On the one hand you can hang out with whoever you want to, but on the other hand it's his best friend." Said Master Reigen. That didn't help at all.

"So is it weird to try and hang out with them or not?" asked Mob. Usually he had all the answers. He was really good at this sort of thing. It was like his power, if he had powers, which he didn't, but he was still a good person. Mob forgave him for lying. In the end he did help her control her powers better, so it wasn't that much of a lie.

When you cared about someone you forgave them.

"Ask you brother if he's ok with you…hanging out…with Sho. If your brother say that it's not cool with him then give them their space." Said Master Reigen. It made sense, Mob decided, so she asked Ritsu over dinner that night.

Sho was eating dinner with his own mom that night. She missed him, she said. Well he had told Ritsu that his mom said that she missed him and she wanted to have dinner with him. Sho didn't know what he wanted, he told Ritsu. Ritsu just said that he should try and see if dinner with his mom was what he wanted and if it wasn't then he could always come over and have dinner at their house. Not that Mob had been trying to eavesdrop, they just talked kind of loudly. That was all.

Mob just so happened to overhear, that was all. There was nothing wrong with just so happening to overhear if someone was talking loudly. She knew this because Tome tended to talk loudly and that was how people knew that she and Mob were dating, back when they had been dating, and when people said congratulations to them, or other things that Mob suspected weren't nice, Tome told them to stop eavesdropping. Then after Mezato overheard them talking and started asking questions about their relationship, and Tome told her not to eavesdrop, Mezato said that it didn't count as eavesdropping because Tome didn't have an indoor voice.

Of course Mob wouldn't have to overhear things to know what was going on if Ritsu said that it was ok for her to hang out with him and Sho.

So she just came out and asked while they were eating dinner. She expected an immediate yes or no, that was why she made sure to ask when she was certain that he was done chewing, but instead he just sort of looked at her.

"Why?" asked Ritsu. Well that wasn't the answer she was expecting, it wasn't an answer at all.

"Because I want to hang out with you and I want to be Sho's friend. If you don't want me to hang out with you guys I understand." Said Mob. They were boys after all and boys don't really hang out with girls. Well, boys and girls used to absolutely not play together when they were little, unless they were siblings, but this was middle school and it was different. But Ritsu was a lot younger than her, a whole year.

"Of course he wants does. Ritsu, don't exclude your sister, you know how much trouble she has making friends." Said Mom even though Mob didn't have that much trouble making friends. This was middle school, not elementary school. People were a lot nicer.

"…sure…" said Ritsu after a while. Mob knew that he meant it. Ritsu loved her and she loved him. If brothers could be best friends who were boys than of course Ritsu would have that spot. Mob ate the rest of her dinner and listened to dad talk about work. Someone got their hair caught in the copy machine and the whole office had to stop working so they were behind. Mob felt sad for dad, he loved his job. She wondered if Ritsu felt sad for dad too, he was making his Ritsu face again.

He made that face until bedtime, not an official bedtime but the time when the whole house started to wind down for the night. Mob was kind of…nervous….mostly. She hadn't ever hung out with Sho and Ritsu for one of their nightly sleepovers. Not for too long, though, because tomorrow was a school day. For her and Ritsu at least. Sho was planning on going to the animal shelter tomorrow and petting all the furry, fuzzy animals after the meeting with the child services people. That sounded like fun, more fun than being in school. Mob had work tomorrow, and club, and a biology test. Everything but that test was fun but not as fun as spending all day petting animals. Sho was so lucky.

Not about the whole having a shonen villain for a dad thing or having a mom that was kind of afraid of you thing, just about the freedom thing. He could do whatever he wanted whenever he wanted. It must have been so nice. Mob wondered what it was like, maybe she could ask him. Sooner rather than later because she could feel his aura getting closer and she heard Ritsu's window open and him climbing through his window. She sat by the wall for a moment, she knew that she had to get up but she couldn't. She drew her legs up to her chest, careful of her Sailor Moon nightshirt because even though there was nobody in the room with her to make fun of her she sort of felt like there was.

Which made no sense because she was all alone in her own room and she didn't have to be because Ritsu said that she could totally hang out with them so all she had to do was get up and move. She could do that and she would do that. It just took a second.

She got up, left her room, crossed the hall, and knocked on Ritsu's door. The whole thing took a minute but it felt like a lot longer. She played with the hem of her nightshirt as the door slowly creaked opened.

"What's the password?" said Sho in a raspy voice.

"I don't know but can I hang out with you guys?" said Mob. The door opened fully. Sho was there in the doorway. He wasn't wearing that green and white jacket that he always wore, now he was just in the white shirt he wore underneath. He had a lot of freckles on his arms.

"If you want to, sister…" said Ritsu from on his bed. He was writing something down in one of his notebooks which Mob knew that she was never, ever, ever to read.

"Come on in. We're not really doing anything. Well, he's over there writing his memoirs but I'm not doing anything." Said Sho. Mob laughed a little, even though it wasn't that funny objectively. Sho was just a funny person. Ritsu looked up from his notebook and made his Ritsu face at her.

What did she do?

Ritsu made that face at her for the entire time she hung out with them. Mob wondered, briefly, if people's faces really could get stuck like that. Ritsu's sure seemed like it was. She didn't know what he was so made at her about. Or was he just mad about something in general? That could be it. He did have a lot of things going on in his life. Still though he didn't need to keep on giving Mob that look.

He have her that look when she sat down on the floor next to Sho.

He gave her that look when she laughed at the funny things that Sho said.

He gave her that look when she scooted close to them to see a twenty four hour live stream Sho found of a bunch of hamsters doing hamster things.

He gave her that look when she took some of the candy that Sho offered her. He never ate the citrus flavored ones, only the berry ones, so he said that they could have them. Mob only took a couple, that was it.

Maybe his face really was stuck like that. Mob thought that maybe it was because he kept on making his Ritsu face even through the next day. He looked at her like that over breakfast, on the way to school, over dinner, and during family time which was pretty much just everyone watching TV together until mom and dad went to sleep. Mob wished that he would just come out and tell her what was bothering him already. She didn't want to just come out and ask because it might have had nothing to do with her and it might have just been none of her business.

She did keep on hanging out with him and Sho, though, even though he kept giving her that look. Not every night though, because sometimes Sho didn't come by until she was already asleep, if he came by at all. His mom was making him sleep at home more often and she was trying to do more things with him as a family. Sho didn't know how to feel about that. Mob didn't have to press her ear to the wall to know this, she had been in the same room when he said it.

"I don't know what's up with her. It's like she's afraid of me but she wants us to be friends too. I don't get it and I don't get her. I mean…she's my mom…my only mom…but she keeps trying to keep me in the house and with her and it's just-ugh!" Sho said. He was laying down upside down. His back was on the ground and his legs were on Ritsu's bed. He was kicking Ritsu a little, but Mob figured that they were just playing because Ritsu would have said something if he was bothered.

"Did you try talking to her?" asked Mob because she knew that the polite thing to do would be to contribute to the conversation. Ritsu made that face at her again.

"What are you, my shrink? Everyone keeps on telling me to talk. Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk…." Said Sho

"Well what are you doing right now?" asked Ritsu. Now he was smiling a little. His Ritsu smile. Sho made a series of hand gestures.

"I doubt you know sign language." Said Ritsu rolling his eyes. Sho rolled his eyes right back and began to pantomime something. It took Mob a minute to figure it out.

"Oh! He says that you drive him crazy." Said Mob. Sho smiled and pantomimed clapping before throwing an arm over her and pointing.

Mob was suddenly very conscious of herself. How she hadn't brushed her hair after she let her braids down. How she was sitting on the floor so very near to Sho that she could feel his body heat. How she could count the freckles on the bridge of his nose. How his skin was somehow as pale as hers even though he got a lot more sunlight. How her nightshirt had a hole near the collar. How the kitten on the front was faded to almost nothing. How old it was, how it was a lot longer when she bought it but now it was only to her knees. How his arm was still lingering across her shoulders. How her aura and hair were starting to act up.

The look Ritsu gave her.

She excused herself under the pretext of being sleepy. She didn't go to sleep, though, not immediately. She had to wait for her face to stop being red and her hair to stop trying to stand up, it was worse when it was down, and for her heart to stop beating so weird and for her aura to calm down. Eventually she went to sleep. She kept her futon away from the far wall that night and instead slept under her window.

Ritsu left for school early that morning and didn't say a word to her at dinner. She didn't know why.

She wondered what was bothering him but she didn't ask because she knew how annoying it could be when someone pried into your life like that. She knew how it felt when he had pried into her life, anyway, and did not want to make him feel the same way. Even though he was younger than her and even though she was older and it was her job to help him out when he needed it. But he would ask if he needed her help, right? She remembered what Master Reigen said about being overly helpful and decided to leave him alone. The pen scratching that she could hear told her that he was busy writing in his notebooks anyway. She drifted off to the sound.

Mob woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of something tapping at her window and the feel of another esper's aura pressing against hers. She got up quickly and opened her window with her powers. Sho came tumbling in.

"Ritsu's window is the next one over, with the blue curtains, in case you forgot or made a mistake or…" said Mob. He was looking at her, really looking at her. She forgot what she was trying to say.

"Here, I got you this. You know, to say sorry." Said Sho. He pulled a little cat plushie keychain out of his pocket. He also had something in a plastic bag slung over his arm. Mob took the toy with her powers and just looked at it. It was a kitten, not a cat, and it was so soft and it's fur was calico patterned, which was very nice, and it's eyes were brown, which was also very nice.

This was very nice.

"So, yeah, sorry if I made you uncomfortable or freaked you out or anything the other night. I forgot that you were a girl." Said Sho.

"Oh." Said Mob. Well that hurt, kind of, kind of a lot. She knew that she wasn't pretty but she still thought that she looked at least a little like a girl. An elementary school girl but still a girl.

"Not in a bad way! I just forgot that girls were sensitive about being touched and stuff so…sorry. That's for you. You can keep it or throw it out or trade it or give it away or burn it or sell it or whatever." Said Sho

"I'll put it on my school bag. Thank you, Sho." Said Mob. This was a gift, a gift for her. She put it on her bag quickly. He was still in her room. He put the plastic bag on the floor and started looking through her stuffed animals on the floor.

"Does Ritsu like cats?" he asked suddenly. He was looking at her again, in that way that made her super aware that she was being looked at. She tugged on the sleeve of her nightgown, not a night shirt this time. Long and white and lacy and to her ankles.

"Yes, but mom and dad said that we can't have any pets. They're too much responsibility and they mess up the house. Mom thinks that, not me." Said Mob

"Your mom should run a hotel or something. She keeps this place way too clean, like hotel room clean." Said Sho

"She works as an accountant but I think she likes cleaning. She does it a lot and doesn't like it when other people help her." said Mob

"Yeah, moms are weird like that. My mom keeps on cleaning up my room for me, not that I'm in there that much. She doesn't even have to. I like my room the way it is, that's why it is the way it is." Said Sho

"My mom cleans up my room for me, too, I think moms just like doing that. She even scraped all my EVA stickers from my desk. That made me kind of sad when she did that." Said Mob

"You like Evangelion?" asked Sho

"Yes, but I know it's not for girls." Said Mob

"That doesn't matter. You can lift skyscrapers with your powers, Ritsu's big sis, who the hell thinks that they can tell you what to do?" said Sho

"My mom." Said Mob. It didn't matter what she could do with her powers, she wasn't going to use her powers to boss people around, especially not her parents.

"Yeah, I guess she can tell you what to do. That's what moms do, they tell you what to do. Anyway does Ritsu like EVA too?" asked Sho

"Yes, but he likes the rebuild movies better. We fight about that sometimes. He says that the series ending doesn't make enough sense. I think that it makes perfect sense. It's third impact and everyone is becoming one with everyone else. They can finally understand each other, they just had to give up their physical bodies and become one." said Mob wondering if she was talking too much. Or maybe she wasn't talking enough. Or maybe she should give Sho a turn to talk.

"Instrumentality always seemed like it sucked, honestly. Why would you want to become one with all the people in the entire world?" asked Sho

"Because that way everyone can understand everyone else." Said Mob

"Yeah but you can do that without letting go of your physical body and having that with everyone. I mean even if everyone understood everyone else that doesn't mean that they like everyone else. It's like having someone in your aura that you don't like. You understand them but you don't want them in your aura." Said Sho

"In? How can you be in someone's aura?" asked Mob. Sho knew more about these things than she did. His dad may have been a bad guy but he did have powers. Neither of Mob's parents had powers. Master Reigen didn't even have powers. She had to go it alone, not even Ritsu could help because he got his powers just a few months ago. Sho knew so much more than she did about this. She had never even heard of being in someone's aura before.

"It's not hard. Here, sit next to me. It's easier if you're closer. Unless you don't want to. I know how girls are about being touched and stuff and this is kind of like that." Said Sho. Mob sat down next to him. Just because she was a girl didn't mean that she would freak out like she had last night. Not that she had freaked out last night.

"Ok, now close your eyes and just focus on my aura. Not even me. Pretend that I'm not here and I'm just an aura. Like my body doesn't exist. Like I'm a spirit." Said Sho. Mob closed her eyes and tried to focus on his aura. Hers was two colors. His was only one. Red. She focused on the red. Her aura moved in sort of a fractal pattern. His just sort of jumped around. Whenever she thought she had it his aura would move away.

"Ok, now just focus on my aura but don't freak out when my aura touches your aura. It feels weird, I'm warning you, so don't freak out." Said Sho. Mob nodded. She felt his aura press against hers. It did feel weird, like a sort of allover warmness. Pressure too.

"Ok, now I'm going to try and make my aura move with yours, ok? Don't freak out." Said Sho. Mob wished that he would stop saying that. If she was going to freak out then she would have done so already. She was about to tell him that she wasn't going to freak out when she felt something really…

What was this?

The suddenly she was in a dark room alone and she was so lonely and she missed her mom but mom was never coming back but dad was still there but dad was busy and-now she was older and she was all alone in another country but she had a mission and she was fine she had to find this esper that could-and then she was older again and she met someone who was so cool because he held his own in a fight and they could totally be friends and-now she was the same age but it was nighttime and she felt so happy and safe and warm and-

"See? Now picture doing that with everyone else in the whole wide world! Too much, way too much." Said Sho. Mob nodded slowly. She knew that feeling, she had done that before. When she showed Serizawa what real friendship was on that day back when…when it all happened. When she tried to save Sho's dad from self-destructing, too, and she had, temporarily, left her vessel and pulled him from his because it was just so much energy and-

"Hey, Ritsu's big sis? You ok?" asked Sho as he waved his hand in front of her face. Mob nodded.

"My name is Shigeko, or Mob, if you don't know my name." said Mob. She was more than Ritsu's sister, she was herself. She wanted to be more than Ritsu's sister to Sho. She wanted to be Mob, or Shigeko, just one of her actual names.

"I knew your name, I totally knew your name. I knew your name this whole time. I really did." Said Sho crossing his arms. Mob nodded even though she didn't quite believe him since she had never once heard him use her name. She wanted him to, though, because…she didn't know why she wanted him to call her by her name right that second but she wanted him to call her by her name.

"Mob or Shigeko? Which do you like better?" asked Sho. Mob thought for a moment. She liked…they were both her name but the only people who ever called her Shigeko were her parents and her brother. Sho was not her brother, he fell into the everyone else category and everyone else called her Mob.

"Mob. You can call me Mob." Said Mob wondering if she had said 'Mob' too many times. She maybe had and then he thought that she was awkward and weird and-

He leaned back and his the ground with a thud. The plastic bag beside him rustled. Mob's eyes darted to the door. Had mom and dad heard that? Any of that? Were they awake right now listening in on everything with their ears pressed to the walls? No, of course they weren't. If they were awake then they would have come in and yelled at her for having Sho in her room at this hour.

Mom had said, before, that Mob wasn't allowed to have her door closed when she had anyone in her room, boys or girls.

But Sho was in her room, her room, not Ritsu's and he was laying down on her futon and she was still sitting up and was that rude? Was she supposed to lay down too? They sat on Ritsu's floor together, which served as a makeshift sleeping space for Sho, but this was her actual sleeping space and he was laying on it and looking up and-

"So what else does he like? Ritsu I mean. I mean, of course I know what he likes, I just want to know if you know what he likes." Said Sho after a while. Mob decided to stay sitting up, mostly because she was having trouble breathing let alone moving. It took her a moment to answer the question.

"He likes writing in his notebooks, but don't ever read them because that's where he writes about his feelings and stuff. Secrets too. He likes movies about feelings and people but he pretends that he doesn't like love stories. He does, he really does. He cried when we watched this movie where the girl had hanahaki disease and she chose to get the petals removed and she could never love again but it was because she just wanted the guy she loved to be happy. Oh, and he likes tofu." Said Mob hoping that she had said just the right amount of words.

"What else does he like? Like music and stuff." Said Sho

"He doesn't really like music." Said Mob

"Any kind of music? How does that even work? I mean he never mentioned any songs he liked but I just figured that we hadn't been together, hang out together, for that long." Said Sho looking at the ceiling. Mob didn't really understand what was so interesting about the ceiling. It did have a lot of cracks in it, though, from when she lost control when she was little.

"No. He doesn't really like music. When we were little I used to listen to the song from the second rebuild movie, Komm Susser Tod, over and over again because I liked it even though it's in English, because the version we had found online was in English with Japanese subtitles, and I looked up what it meant before I could understand it but he got annoyed and I said that he could put his own music on but he said that music was annoying." Said Mob thinking that she had said too many words. She did, she probably did.

"Ok, no music, lots of tofu, sappy movies, mech anime, diaries. Well I was right about the notebook….anyway, thanks, Mob. I won't keep you up any longer. Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs lay eggs in your ears." Said Sho getting up.

"….you can stay, if you want…to hang out I mean…" said Mob softly. Her face was beet red, why oh why had she turned a light on? She drew her knees up to her chest. She felt that again, the awareness of herself and what she looked like.

"No, it's ok. You have school and stuff in the morning. Later." Said Sho before he left. Mob turned her lights off with her powers and laid down on her futon. It sort of smelled like Sho. Sho smelled like animals a lot of the time, and the park too. Boy soap, but a different kind than Ritsu's. That side of the futon was still warm from where he was laying down. He was a warm person in general, probably from all the fires he started.

She smiled.

Then she didn't, because burning her house down hadn't been a very nice thing to do at all.

But he was sorry, and he had his reasons.

She heard talking from the other room. She stayed still for a moment before crawling over and pressing her ear against the far wall.

"Here, it's for you. I noticed that you notebook was getting full and I was at the store anyway getting something for your sister-" said Sho

"Why did you get her something?" asked Ritsu. He had a tone there that Mob could not place for the life of her.

"Because I felt bad for freaking her out so I got her a keychain because she's a girl and girls like that kind of stuff. Why are you mad?" asked Sho

"I'm not mad. I'm not mad at all." Said Ritsu

"I can see your aura, I know that you're mad. Are you still mad that I freaked your sister out? Because me and her are cool now. Ask her yourself. Actually, don't, because I think she's trying to get to sleep." Said Sho

"Then go sleep in her room, Sho, and leave me alone." Said Ritsu. There was some silence.

"What?" asked Sho

"If you and my sister are such good friends then go and sleep in her room." Said Ritsu

"Will you stop it and just tell me what I did wrong? Whatever it is I'll-" said Sho

"Suzuki, please! It's late and I'm tired, ok? Just…in the morning, ok? Not now…" said Ritsu

"OK….in the morning….but here, at least accept this." said Sho. There was the sound of plastic rustling and bedsprings creaking.

"Ok, fine, thank you. Just…I'm tired and unlike you I actually have somewhere to be in the morning." Said Ritsu. Sho made a noise that made Mob want to go in there and hug him. Such a sad noise for a person to make…

"I have places to be…lots of places…I don't know what I did or what's got you so upset but…but I'm sorry and I'll be back when you're not so-so-good night." Mob heard a window slam. Loudly. She scooted back to her futon quickly as she heard mom and dad's door open and footsteps filled the hallway.

Ritsu told mom and dad that the window had just shut on it's own. Mom got mad at him for leaving the windows opened at night while they were running the heat. Dad came in and checked on her, she pretended to be asleep. She wasn't about to go telling mom and dad on Ritsu. She liked having Sho come over in the middle of the night.

She liked Sho.

She knew, in the morning, after having slept in the shadow of where he had laid that she liked him. That was what this feeling was, she had felt it before. She liked him. She liked Sho Suzuki. She liked the way he made her laugh even when what he said wasn't objectively funny. She liked the way he never once said that she was weird or awkward. She liked the way that he always had something interesting to say. She liked the way he looked, how his red hair stood up no matter what he was doing, his blue and sharp his eyes were, how he had so many freckles on his face and his arms and his neck and probably a lot of other places too that she, of course, had never seen before and was not at all ready to see but she did want to play connect the dots with the freckles that she could see…

She liked Sho.

But he was Ritsu's best friend. That was probably why Ritsu was so mad at him last night. Ritsu never liked anybody that she liked, romantically anyway. That meant that she couldn't like Sho. If liking Sho drove a wedge between Ritsu and his best friend in the whole wide world then she just could not like him. She could not like him and she would not like him because she loved Ritsu and she would gladly sacrifice her happiness to keep him happy because he had never had a friend as close as Sho was to him and she could not let Ritsu be all alone again.

But she liked Sho.

She…she wanted to be Sho's girlfriend. The thought of it, of being his girlfriend….it made her all happy. That nervous sort of happiness that made her want to clutch her pillow to her chest and roll around on her futon. The kind of nervous sort of happiness that made her hair stand up and all of her stuffed animals float and the lights in her room flicker and-

"Shigeko! You're having a nightmare. Stop it." Her mother was calling down the hallway. Right, all the lights in the house must have been flickering too.

"Sorry! Goodnight everyone!" said Mob as she did her best to calm down. Wait, no, it was morning, early in the morning.

"Shigeko! It's five in the morning! Your father and I only get so many overlapping days off, now either get ready for school or go back to sleep!" her mother called down the hall again. Right. Not nighttime. Daytime. Time to get up and great the day and…and figure out what she was supposed to do about this. She couldn't talk to mom or dad about this, it was too private. That was why Ritsu could never know either, that she liked Sho…back? Sho maybe…maybe he liked her. He did the stuff that boys who had liked her did before, that was why Ritsu was so upset. He got her a present and talked to her and spent time with her and did that aura thing, which was new and kind of weird but nice….maybe he liked her back…

But she could not be his girlfriend, not if it would upset Ritsu.

Because Ritsu was her brother and she loved him.

Master Reigen neither agreed with her.

"Yeah, I'd just nope right out of the whole situation if I were you, Mob. If you know it bothers your brother I wouldn't pursue anything there. I'm sorry Mob, but don't worry. Plenty of fish in the sea." Said Reigen. Mob nodded. Master Reigen was right. She had come to him for advice even though she knew what the right thing to do was. She was trying to confirm that it was the right thing to do, do nothing and not mess anything up. Or maybe she had been hoping that she had been wrong about what to do, that there was some simple solution that she was missing but was obvious to someone with actual social skills.

"But what if there was a way that everything wouldn't be…awkward. I mean…Ritsu doesn't like anyone who likes me but if it's his best friend then…" said Mob because, well, maybe there was a way and if there was Master Reigen would know it.

"If it's his best friend then I guarantee you there is no good way for this to end. Trust me, Mob, I've been here before. Not that I have any sisters but I have tried to date my friend's sister. It did not end well." He said. Mob decided to listen to him, he knew what he was talking about.

Ok, so she couldn't be Sho's girlfriend. She could still be Sho's friend. She could still talk to him and hang out with him and stuff like that. There was nothing wrong with that. Ritsu didn't even say anything. He just kept on making his Ritsu face at her, which Sho described as someone trying to peel a lemon with their tongue.

Which was very funny.

But she shouldn't have laughed.

Sho was always kind of funny. He just sort of did things, too, and they were funny. Probably because he ran off of his own internal logic sometimes, it seemed like. Like the time when he got Ritsu a Costco sized box of frozen tofu because Ritsu really liked tofu.

"Did you carry this all the way from Costco?" Ritsu asked when he unwrapped the giant box of tofu. Not that anyone but Sho knew that the gift had tofu in it. Strange gift, in Mob's opinion, because frozen food wasn't usually a gift and mom already went to the store that week.

"Yup. On my back fifteen miles through the snow uphill in both directions without shoes on." Sho said before sticking the bow that had been on the gift onto Ritsu's head. He took it off and stuck it to Sho's forehead. They kind of play fought for a little bit after not, Mob was not included. Not that she wanted to, anyway.

People forgot that she was in the room all the time, never her own brother before.

But she was fine. Sho and Ritsu did forget about her sometimes but that was ok because she as Mob after all and people forgot about her all the time. It never bothered her before and it didn't bother her that much because, well, Sho really was more Ritsu's friend and she had been wanting Ritsu to stop hovering around her like she was a little kid all the time so really she didn't mind at all, not even one little bit. Not at all, she didn't have to be included in everything.

But it would be nice to be included sometimes, without having to ask.

Even in stuff that she knew that she didn't have to be included in. Though she would have liked to cover Ritsu in EVA stickers, because he liked EVA, Sho's words. Not exactly covered but he had a lot of them on him. Sho's doing. Sho even stuck around until morning to see Ritsu's face when he saw his face.

"Sho…when did this look like a good idea?" Mob was bad at reading tones but she could read auras and Ritsu hadn't been upset at all, even though he was trying to sound upset. Mob didn't laugh that time, even though he looked funny standing in the bathroom door in his pajamas all covered in stickers.

"Like four hours ago. You're a really deep sleeper, you know that?" Sho had said. Ritsu just rolled his eyes and started peeling the stickers off. Then Sho helped him and he just sort of stopped and stared at Sho for a long time and Mob was worried that he was getting mad but he wasn't at all. Ritsu wasn't the sort of person to just stand there and be mad, he usually did something about it. Besides, Ritsu could never stay mad at Sho, he said so.

But he did sometimes get mad at Sho.

Ritsu got mad at Sho whenever Sho and Mob hung out. Not that it was that often. Mob just, sometimes, asked how he was. That was all, she just wanted to know how he was doing. He had a lot to do because of children's services breathing down his neck, his words, and his mom being all weird, not exactly his words.

"I mean, I'm not my dad and I'm not going to end up like my dad. Not at all. Seriously, if I start to go crazy and try to take over the world…or my eyebrows start to look like caterpillars, I give you permission to put me out of my misery." Sho had said one day while they were watching TV. It was a movie, the one about the lady with hanahaki disease that she and Ritsu liked, though Ritsu would never admit that he liked.

The movie was paused, because Ritsu needed a bathroom break, and it would have been mean to let him miss the movie even though he and Mob had seen this movie so many times that the disk was starting to get warped. Mob asked how Sho was doing, mainly because she wanted to talk to him but she didn't know what to say so she asked how he was doing but that had probably been the wrong thing to say and now he probably felt bad.

"I wouldn't do that. Also couldn't you just get your eyebrows done? My mom gets hers done sometimes." Said Mob

"Yeah but then I'd have to spend money getting my eyebrows done and that's a dumb thing to spend money on. I don't know, I have money but it's all dad's money and I don't really want it but I have it so I don't know. I guess my mom could use it but she doesn't want it either. Maybe I'll just give it all to the animal shelter. Maybe I'll start one! For hamsters! They need homes too…" said Sho. Then he was quiet for a minute.

"My mom got me a hamster. Her name is sunflower. She has a tank but mom wants to go with me to the pet store on her day off so we can make a proper home for her." said Sho. Mob wondered what a proper home for a hamster was but she didn't get a chance to answer.

"Which is so weird because she looks at me like she's afraid of me but then she wants to spend time with me but when we do spend time together she hardly talks and she just looks at me and I look at her and then it's all 'ok, what now?' and I just don't know." Said Sho. Mob waited for a moment. She gave him time to talk more. Sometimes he did that, just sort of start conversations with himself like that.

"I mean of course I'll go with her, Sunflower needs a real house after all. She deserves it, she's such a good hamster. Want to some pictures?" asked Sho. He didn't wait for a response, he just scooted up next to Mob and started flipping through pictures of a brown hamster with a stripe on it's back.

So that was what Sho's room looked like.

She always imagined his room as being something as chaotic as he was. His room, what she could see of it, was simple. Blue walls, blue bedding, dresser, desk. Not a lot of stuff. Well that made sense, he practically lived at her house. Sho kept on flipping through the pictures until he flipped one too many times and got to one of Ritsu writing in his notebook. Sho took his phone back quickly.

"Thanks for everything, by the way." said Sho

"What did I do?" asked Mob

"You know, for helping me get Ritsu to, well, like me." Said Sho. Mob blinked.

"But he already liked you." Said Mob. Ritsu so obviously like Sho, they were best friends. Ritsu never had anyone over at midnight and certainly wouldn't let someone he didn't like cover him in stickers or any of the other things that he and Sho did.

Sho was quiet for a second, just a second. She could feel his aura practically buzzing against hers, like it was made of static electricity. He stared at her for along while before he pulled her into a bone crushing hug. Literally. She could feel her bones being crushed. Too close to even enjoy the closeness, not that she wanted to, because if she did then she would end up liking him more and she didn't want to ruin what Ritsu had with Sho but this was very nice and he still wasn't letting her go so she had no choice but to wrap her arms around him and wow! He was super warm, like sitting right next to the electric heater on a cold day.

"Seriously, thank you so much. Not just for helping me get Ritsu to like me but for being my friend, too. Oh! And you saved the world, so thanks for that….and not killing my dad even though you totally could have…just thanks for that…" said Sho letting go of her. Mob was slightly slower to let go. She had never been that close to a boy who wasn't her brother. It was nice.

"You're welcome. I didn't really do anything, though, not really. About getting Ritsu to like you, I mean, not about saving the world or anything like that. I wouldn't have killed your dad, anyway, I was just trying to get him to stop…doing all the stuff that he was doing. But he did stop so that's good but I am sorry that he's in prison now, I didn't mean to do that. So I'm sorry about that. But I already said that. " Said Mob. She could feel her hair starting to stand up on its own. She played with the hem of her shirt.

"Don't be sorry about that. He did that to himself. If he hadn't been so crazy then he could have been here with me…but not 'here' here. You get it, what I mean. Yeah, that's why I like you guys. You guys get me." Said Sho quietly

"You…like me?" asked Mob. Something tipped over somewhere in the house.

"Yeah, of course I do. You're, like, the only person besides Ritsu who gets me. Of course I like you." Said Sho. Mob stared at him. He stared right back. She held it. He held it right back.

"But…what about Ritsu?" asked Mob

"Huh? What about him?" asked Sho still staring.

"You…you said that you like me…Ritsu doesn't really like boys who like me…so he might get mad at you…" said Mob. Sho blinked. She won. She certainly felt like it. She knew that hair braids were sticking straight up. She knew that her braids were sticking straight up. She knew that her powers were picking up anything that wasn't nailed down.

"I didn't mean like that! No, no way! Shit! I'm sorry. No. I don't like you like that. Just as a friend." Said Sho. Mob dropped everything that she was holding up.

"Ok." Said Mob

"Just a friend who's a girl, not a girlfriend." Said Sho

"I understand." Said Mob. She wanted to crawl under the couch and live there. Yes. Then nobody could see how red she was. Nobody would know how embarrassed she was. How badly she had misread the atmosphere.

"I mean, you know I like…or maybe you didn't. Anyway, in conclusion, I like you as a friend and only a friend." Said Sho. Mob nodded. She heard him the first time. She excused herself to her room. She needed to be alone with her embarrassment. Maybe she could live in her room from now on and never come out, like Serizawa did. No, wait, that wasn't good…well she would just stay in her room for a while then.

Well that had been the plan, anyway.

She could feel Ritsu's aura when she passed by his door. He felt…sad. She didn't think, she just opened his door and went right in. Ritsu was her little brother and it was her job to keep him from ever being sad. She loved and cared for him and she'd figure out what made him sad and she'd…she'd do something based upon what it was.

"Sister. What are you doing in here?" asked Ritsu. He was sitting on his bed writing something down in his notebook. That one looked new, his were kind of beat up usually.

"You felt sad." Said Mob sitting on the edge of the bed. He scooted away from her.

"I'm not." Said Ritsu

"Yes you are, I can tell. What's bothering you? You can tell me." Said Mob

"You. You're bothering me. Right now. Just go downstairs…" said Ritsu

"Why? Because I didn't knock? I'm sorry about that but you don't always knock either. I was just worried about you. Why have you been so upset lately?" asked Mob. She wasn't the best at reading people or the atmosphere but she knew when her own little brother was upset.

"You know why!" said Ritsu. He turned his back to her.

"No I don't. I would never do anything to upset you on purpose. Is it because you thought that Sho liked me? I mean you never said that but you always get mad at people when they like me. When they like me like they want me to be their girlfriend, not how Sho likes me. Sho doesn't like me like that, he said so." Said Mob. Ritsu turned back around to face her.

"He said that?" asked Ritsu. He seemed happier now. So Mob had been right. It wouldn't have been worth it, then, if Sho had liked her how she liked him.

"Yes. He made himself perfectly clear that he didn't like me back so now you have no reason to be mad at him and you can go back downstairs and I can be upstairs because it's rude to leave a guest alone downstairs." Said Mob

"…you like him….too?" asked Ritsu. Mob nodded.

"Yes. I liked him but he doesn't like me like that. He just wants us to be friends so I guess that we can all be friends together." Said Mob

"…that's not what I meant." Said Ritsu quietly

"Oh. Ok. Sorry. I'm just…you know that I'm bad at talking." Said Mob. Ritsu was quiet for a moment.

"Can I tell you something?" asked Ritsu

"You can tell me anything, brother, you know that." Said Mob

"…I like Sho." Said Ritsu

"I know. He's your best friend." Said Mob simply. Ritsu shook his head.

"You don't…I mean that I really like him…and it's just hard for me because you like him too…and I don't even know if he likes me like that…and seeing him with you just makes me so…" said Ritsu. Mob hugged him.

"I didn't know that you liked Sho like that! Ritsu, I would have never liked him if you liked him!" said Mob holding him as tightly as she could.

"…you don't care that I like him…?" asked Ritsu, his voice muffled because she was holding him very tightly and may or may not have been suffocating him a little.

"I care that I liked someone that you liked. The next time you like someone tell me so then I won't let myself like them." Said Mob. She had no idea that Ritsu liked boys but it made sense. They were siblings after all. Wait, did that mean that mom and dad…? She did not want to speculate on the subject of who her parents may or may not have dated before they were married. She was so happy that Ritsu found someone he liked. She didn't care, not very much anyway, that she had made an idiot out of herself. Ritsu liked someone, and it was Sho, so she didn't have to worry about him meeting someone who was mean to him or wrong for him in some way.

But if Sho broke Ritsu's heart or did anything at all to hurt him Mob would make him pay. Possibly with violence, she didn't really control what happened when she exploded.

Nobody did anything to hurt her little brother.

Not that Sho ever would. He wasn't like that. He was nice and funny and perfect for Ritsu. That is if Sho liked him back. Mob didn't know if Sho liked Ritsu back and she hoped that he did. If he broke Ritsu's heart…the thought of anyone breaking Ritsu's heart makes her feel like she's going to explode. But Sho was nice…but he might now even like…but Sho was Ritsu's best friend…but that didn't mean that he was obligated to be Ritsu's boyfriend.

Mob was just about ready, once she got over her own embarrassment at thinking that Sho liked her, to go downstairs and ask Sho herself. But she didn't even have the chance because he left suddenly because he had a very good idea, his words. Mob didn't know what it was but she hoped that it didn't involve burning down her house. That was what happened when he had his last 'very good idea'.

It turned out that his very good idea didn't involve burning down the house, which was very good for Mob and her family, but instead involved spitting flowers. Not that Mob had been there to witness anything. She had heard through the wall, and she was not eavesdropping. She was just…concerned.

"What the hell!?" said Ritsu a little too loudly

"Ok, I give up!" said Sho. Then he started coughing.

"Did you actually eat flowers? Why did you eat flowers?" asked Ritsu

"Because I like you!" said Sho followed by a coughing fit. She heard the sound of someone being hit on the back. Well she assumed it was a back, and she assumed that it was Sho getting hit on the back, because that was what you did when someone was coughing like that.

"Don't mess around like that…and don't say things that you don't mean." Said Ritsu

"I mean it, I like you! That's why I'm coughing up flowers." Said Sho

"You're coughing up flowers because you…I can't believe you came here in the middle of the night…with your mouth stuffed full of flowers…." Said Ritsu. Well the last part came out in a series of laughs.

"Yeah, because I like you. Ok? I like you and if you don't like me that's fine but this is torture! Flowers taste so gross!" said Sho

"Then why did you eat them?" asked Ritsu

"To show you that I liked you. I tried getting you things that you liked, I tried hanging out with you, and now I have hanahaki syndrome and my mouth tastes like a flower shop." Said Sho. Mob laughed just a little. Not enough to be heard.

"You ate flowers…you actually ate flowers!" laughed Ritsu

"…I swallowed some on accident." Said Sho

"I know…I know you're just so…" said Ritsu

"So do you like me back or not? Just tell me so I can go home and cough up these flowers in peace." Said Sho

"I like you…..I really like you…" said Ritsu. There was a paused and then two very bright auras shone through the walls. Happy. Very happy.

"…..but flowers?!" said Ritsu

"Oh shut up, you love it." Said Sho. Then they got kind of quiet and Mob could only hear what they were saying if she pressed her ear against the wall but that would have been eavesdropping and she didn't like it when Ritsu did it so she wouldn't do that to him.

But what if Ritsu got hurt? What if Sho ended up breaking his heart? Mob knew what it felt like to be heartbroken, it was not a good feeling at all. She needed to spare Ritsu from…but in doing that she would be smothering him, not literally, and then he would feel just as annoyed as she did. She loved Ritsu but….but he could run his own life. His life was his own.

She needed to trust that Ritsu would be ok. Sho was a very nice person, that was why she liked him. So she did. She pulled her futon away from the wall and went to sleep on the other side of the room. Eventually. When she couldn't keep her eyes opened anymore. Not that she even knew what she was on the lookout for. Sho wasn't going to reject Ritsu. That was good. Ritsu didn't deserve to know that feeling.

Sho was a nice person. Ritsu would be very happy. That was all Mob wanted, her brother's happiness.


	7. Teruki Hanazawa

Teruki Hanazawa was…a lot of things. A lot of good things. He was a good friend and a good person and he was a lot of good things.

Teru, first of all, because he asked her to call him that. When they met he was Hanazawa and she was Kageyama. When they saved Ritsu from Claw he became Teruki and she was Shigeko. Now that they had saved the world again he was just Teru and she was just Mob. They were friends now, Mob thought, and it was nice.

He was nice. That was another thing that he was. He was a really nice person. He hadn't been when they met, they had fought, but he was nice now. He was nice enough to forgive her for destroying his school and beating him up and losing him the respect of all of his friends and ripping his clothes off and sending him into the stratosphere and also shaving him bald. He was really nice to forgive her for all of those things like that.

"No, really, Shigeko it's fine. I don't hold it against you. If anything I'm the one fully in the wrong. I never should have fought you in the first place and there is no way that I can justify my behavior then." He had said. He said this not too long ago, after the first time they defeated Claw but before the second. She had decided to apologize to him for what she had done to him.

Because it had been wrong.

But he said that he was even more wrong for fighting with a girl. He said that even though she had been dressed up like a boy, Master Reigen disguised her as a boy because Black Vinegar wouldn't let him in to perform an exorcism, he had still been wrong to fight with her.

Then she asked him if he meant the first or second time that they had fought.

Then he got sort of quiet. Quiet didn't suit him at all. He was like Master Reigen in that regard, he always had to be saying something or making some noise or just moving. But he got so quiet when she asked that…and it had just been a simple question. To Mob anyway. She had just wanted to know if he was talking about the first time they fought when she had gone to Black Vinegar dressed as a boy because someone thought that his psychic powers were actually ghosts messing about or the second time when those nice boys from Black Vinegar kidnapped her, which was actually just asking nicely if she wanted to come with them once they realized that she was a girl and kidnapping was a crime. She only went with those boys to apologize to Teru for throwing him with her powers after he used his powers to hit her.

But then she and Teru fought again.

And she destroyed his school, beat him up, wrecked his clothes, shaved his head, lost him the respect of his friends, and sent him into inner outer space.

So she was sorry.

And he was sorry.

So she said so again. She studied his face, first, and his aura. Bad. He was looking away from her and his aura was pulled away from her. He felt bad and she made him feel bad and she did not ever want to make anyone feel bad, especially her friend, so she apologized for even saying anything.

"No, don't apologize. You're right. I was an asshole to you when we met and I totally understand if you don't want anything to do with me." He had said, which was the direct opposite of what she wanted. She told him that it was the direct opposite of what she wanted. She wanted them to be friends.

"Do you mean that or do you just feel grateful that I helped to save your brother, not that you needed me. You and that Reigen guy had it covered." He had said, still in that hurt tone.

"Teruki, I want us to be friends, and not just because you helped me to save Ritsu. I want to be your friend because you're a good person. You changed and that means that I can change, too, so you give me hope." Mob had said, telling the whole truth. He looked at her, then, and held eye contact. She held it right back.

"Alright then. Let me make it up to you, not that I ever could, but let me try. Can I at least try?" he had asked. She just nodded. She didn't think that this was necessary but he spoke with so much conviction then, at least it sounded like conviction to her, that she decided to go along with it.

Making it up to her turned out to be getting her lunch at a café.

Mob had never been to a café before but it was nice. They had warm milk with vanilla and cake, so it was nice. He got coffee and a different kind of cake. He sat across from her, sometimes their legs would bump under the table. She said 'sorry' every time it happened but he said that it was fine.

"It's not your fault, they just pack the tables in much too closely here. Anything to make a few extra yen I suppose, even sacrificing basic comfort. This always happens when I….um…do you like your cake? If you don't like it then I can always get you something else." he asked her. Mob nodded. That seemed like an odd way to jump around in a conversation but then again it wasn't as though she were an expert in the subject of conversation or anything like that.

"I like my cake a lot, Teruki, because it's chocolate and vanilla at the same time. I think that chocolate and vanilla go good together. This is a really nice place, too, so thank you for bringing me here. I've never been here before, or to any café, so I'm happy to be here now. It's important to broaden your horizons, Master Reigen said once. It smells nice in here, too, which I also like. I can see why you come here to much…I'm sorry if I talked too much. Sometimes I do that. Sometimes I don't talk enough, too. I'm still figuring it out." Said Mob. It smelled like coffee and pastry and cinnamon. She wished that they made perfume that smelled like this. Not that she had any perfume. Mom did, thought, but it didn't smell as nice as this. Not that she would ever go and tell mom a thing like that, that would have been a mean thing to say to your own mother.

"No, you're fine, Shigeko. If anything I talk too much some times. I like it when you talk, you're very direct and you never hide what you feel. It's refreshing. The girls I usually…" he said. Then he got kind of quiet and looked down. Mob watched him for a little bit. He almost never talked about his other friends.

"I don't come here that often." He said quickly. He rubbed the back of his neck and looked at the table, at the people across from them, and out the window. Everywhere else but at Mob. She wiped her mouth with her hand in case she had something on her face. Only when she was done did she remember that napkins were a thing and that they were out in public at a nice place.

She probably embarrassed him. That was something that Mob did, embarrassed people. Whenever her family went out mom always told Mob to be careful not to embarrass the family.

"…not that I bring a lot of girls here. Not anymore. Not for a while." He said. He still looked out the window when he said that. There must have been something really interesting out there. Or maybe it was just something interesting to him. Sometimes Master Reigen spent a while looking out the window if there was a dog out there. Very long if it was an interesting breed. Mob didn't care that much about dogs, cats were clearly the superior pet, but she still looked. She wondered what Teru was looking at. Mob turned her head. It was a nice view, of the people walking by.

"I mean, ok, sometimes I bring girls here but that's just because….this is a nice place. It's nothing against you. I mean, we aren't even….not that you would want to. I don't want to push you into anything. We're just friends. We're just getting lunch as friends, and I mean it. I would never pressure you to do anything." He said quickly. He still didn't look at her. She wondered if maybe she would understand what he was getting at more if he were looking at her.

"…that was before, before all of…yeah. I was such a dick, sorry, I behaved poorly towards…yeah. That was the old me. This is different. You're different." Said Teruki still not looking at her. She looked at his reflection in the window. He looked nice. He was wearing a bright pink shirt, which she liked, and it had buttons, which she liked, and his top buttons were undone, which she also liked but in a different sort of way. She stared at his reflection.

"Do you think that I'm different?" asked Mob. Different could mean good things and bad things. Mom always complained that Mob was too different. Master Reigen always said that her differences made her unique and endearing. She decided that Teruki wasn't complaining about her being different. She knew what made her different, all of her weirdness, but she got the feeling that he wasn't talking about that. Maybe he meant in the way that she was acting. Master Reigen said that she was different, more confident, since what happened with those Claw guys. She felt the same as she always felt. Happier, actually, because she had saved Ritsu and Master Reigen…he had saved her. He borrowed her powers and he saved her and it had been the most amazing thing that another person had ever done for her.

She spent the whole night afterwards remembering how it felt when he stood up after being slashed across the back. Remembering how he just…saved her. How it felt.

But she could not think about that now. Not when she was out in public and out with her friend.

"Yes, you are. You're different from every other girl that I've ever met…Shigeko. Shigeko…would you want to do this again? I mean, if you don't want to I totally understand. No pressure. No pressure to be anything that you don't want to be or do anything that you don't want to do. I understand if there are still hard feelings, and I wouldn't blame you, but I would…I would like to do this again with you." he asked. He was facing her now and she faced him right back. That was the polite thing to do, look back at him while he was talking to her. He looked very serious, then, like he was asking her the meaning of the last two episodes of EVA or something. That would have been a serious question to ask because the answer was difficult to explain.

This was an easy question to answer, though.

"Of course I want to hang out with you again, Teruki, we're friends. We are, right? Sometimes I can't misread the atmosphere." Said Mob. She saw a few different expressions dance across his face. He settled on happy though, which was good, and leaned back in his chair. He took a long sip of his coffee before putting the cup down.

"We're friends, Shigeko, if you want us to be. Yes…friends. I can do that." He said

"Oh. Good. I didn't misread anything. I'm happy to be your friend, Teruki." Said Mob

"Please, call me Teru." He had said. Mob agreed and told him to call her Mob. From that moment on he was Teru and she was Mob and they were much better friends. Which was good, because she could always use more friends, and he really was a good friend. She liked it, spending time with him.

They went to place together, sometimes, when their schedules allowed it. He had a lot to do in his life, more than she did, anyway. He had soccer and biking, which took up a lot of time, and his school friends, which took up a lot more of his time. She had Telepathy Club and Body Improvement Club and work, which took up a lot of her time, especially when all of those things happened on the same day. Then she started dating Tome which took up a lot more of her free time. She wondered if Teru had a girlfriend, he probably did.

Probably a pretty, popular, girl. A girl like Tsubomi. That was probably the kind of girl that he liked. The thought made Mob feel…kind of like she swallowed something sharp, but it passed as soon as it came. She wasn't the Tsubomi type and that was fine. She was herself and she had a girlfriend so she shouldn't even care what kinds of girls that Teru liked. He was popular and cool and stuff like that. Mob wasn't and that was fine. She was herself and she had someone who liked her.

Then she didn't.

And it hurt.

But this made the times, the rare times, that she could just get lunch and stuff with Teru even better.

They couldn't meet up often but when they did it was for nice, peaceful lunches at nice places.

They talked about their days, mostly. Their lives. Friends and clubs. He had a lot of friends, she couldn't even keep them all straight. She had a few friends, it was easier for him to remember their names. She told him about how body improvement club was going, how she could run almost as fast as everyone else now. He told her about the trip his bike club was taking, they were going to spend an entire weekend biking for miles and miles. She told him about how the telepathy club was going to start a three day, two night, Fantasy Hell marathon grinding session to get their characters strong enough to take on the NEETs. He laughed when she said that.

"No, no, I'm not laughing at you. Just the way you said NEETs. Sorry. It was just so adorable." Teru had said. Then he took a long swig from his drink. It was some kind of coffee drink with a European name that Mob couldn't remember. She just had milk and vanilla with whipped cream. Coffee was too bitter.

"Tome says that the NEETs are worse than the player killer, that's a spirit that Master exorcised. She says that the NEETs are making the game unplayable because they have nothing but free time so they can grind all day. I don't know if I'm going to play with them. I don't really play that often, my character is really weak, and Tome and I used to play back when we were dating so it still makes me kind of sad…" said Mob

He choked on his drink. His cup tipped over but Mob caught it and the liquid as it sloshed out.

"Dating? You date…girls? Not that it's any of my business who you date or who you choose to date. I don't mind that you're a…lesbian. I don't mind lesbians, not at all. I like…I mean I don't mind lesbians. I don't LIKE lesbians, that would be a weird thing to say…God why am I still talking?" said Teru. He stopped coughing, mostly, and she put his drink down in front of him. He played with the rim of his cup.

"I don't know but I don't mind. You can say whatever you want. I don't mind." Said Mob. He took another sip of his coffee drink thing. Mob wanted to tell him that it was a bad idea but she didn't get the chance to. Then the coughing started up again, this time worse.

"Really, I didn't mean anything by that, nothing at all. I really don't care that you're a lesbian. I even had no idea that you were a lesbian. Is that the right word? I need to stop saying lesbian, people are looking. Shut your mouth, Teruki." he spoke quickly then, and coughed as he spoke. Mob wondered why he didn't just stop talking and wait for the coughing to stop. That was what you were supposed to do when something went down the wrong pipe, as dad called it. You also weren't supposed to use your powers to smack someone on the back, Mob was not doing that again. Dad was ok, though, no broken bones he had said.

"I'm bi-sexual, so not a lesbian. I like boys and girls, both equally." Said Mob. People were looking, but maybe because he was coughing so much. She reached across the table, giving up halfway and just standing up, and hit him on the back with her hand a few times.

Maybe he should slow down on the coffee.

He talked really fast after that. He told her that he was really ok with the fact that she was bisexual, which seemed like a given to Mob. Why would it matter to someone if she were bisexual or not? There were some people like that but Teru didn't seem like one of them. One of those people that got upset about things that didn't affect them in the slightest. Mob didn't get it. Love was love, it didn't matter who shared it. Sometimes boys and girls shared love with each other, sometimes boys shared love with other boys, and sometimes girls shared love with other girls.

Love made the world go round.

And that wasn't just a song that Mob liked.

Teru agreed, though.

"You're right, Mob. Love is a beautiful thing for two people to share. I mean I'VE never felt it but…I'm glad that you have and I'm sorry that you and your girlfriend broke up." Said Teru

"I'm sorry that you've never been in love. It's a good feeling…I think. I'm not sure. I don't think that I've ever been in love, either. I've had people that I really liked but I've never been in love. Not like in manga and anime, anyway. I mean…liking someone a whole lot feels good, though, until it's over." Said Mob

"…I don't think that I've ever even liked someone that much, before. Not anyone that I've seen…in a romantic capacity, anyway." Said Teru. Mob couldn't help it, she giggled. A little, just a little, because she didn't usually laugh very loudly.

That had been mean, though, so she said sorry.

"I wasn't laughing at you, Teru, just what you said. This boy who I used to go out with, well I didn't know that I was his girlfriend, said when we broke up that he didn't want to see me in a romantic capacity anymore. My mom also says romantic capacity and it was funny when Master Reigen pointed it out. I don't know. That was a dumb thing to laugh about. I'm sorry." Said Mob

"No, it's fine. That is a weird way to phrase it." Said Teru

"No, it was still wrong of me to laugh at you." Said Mob

"It's fine, Mob, I like your laugh. It's cute." Said Teru. Then he got sort of quiet and looked down at his empty coffee cup. There was some silence between them. Mob used that time to eat her cake. This time it was a honey cake that was flaky and sticky and delicious and had a European name that Mob couldn't remember.

"…how did you not know that you were his girlfriend? How does one…not know that they're in a relationship?" asked Teru after a moment. Mob put her fork down and shrugged.

"He told me that I was his girlfriend. I mean I guess that I should have known, really, because he was always holding my hand and spending time with me. He also kissed me, too, but that doesn't count because I only kissed him on accident. I'm not good at getting a clue so I didn't realize that I was his girlfriend. The same thing happened with Tome, she's the girlfriend I was talking about before. We were girlfriends for a while without me realizing that she meant…in a romantic capacity." Said Mob

"Well if one is going to be in a relationship one must make sure that the other party is one the same page." Said Teru. He said 'one' sometimes. He said it in the sense as the word 'you' and he had a tone when he said it. Kind of like how adults talked. He sat up straighter when he talked like that, too. It was kind of like how Master Reigen talked when they had clients in the office

"Yes. It's important to tell someone what you want and to make sure that they understand." Said Mob. He got quiet again. She used that time to scrape the sticky, honey cake reside from her plate with her fork. It made a loud, ugly sound so she used her finger.

Teru stared at her.

She looked up at him, her finger was still in her mouth. Why was he….oh. Oh!

This was rude, wasn't it? Right. She wasn't eating with Master Reigen. He didn't mind if she was messy or impolite, he ate messy too. He often scraped his plate with his finger. But he was not there. This was Teru and he was so grown up and mature and she was probably embarrassing him. He was just too nice of a person to tell her to knock it off and stop making an embarrassment out of herself, as mom was apt to say.

"Sorry!" said Mob. The table rattled a little. He didn't say anything for a little bit. He just turned a sort of red color. Oh no, she had really messed up. She apologized again and this seemed to snap him out of whatever state that he was in.

"It's fine, Mob. You don't have to scrape your plate, I'll get you more. I need another drink anyway, and you're almost out too. I'll be right back." Said Teru. He got up quickly and used his powers to stack their empty plates and cups on the table. He didn't go straight to the counter, though. He stood in front of the glass thing where they had the cake slices and just sort of rocked back and forth on his heels a little.

Mob understood. It was hard to decide sometimes.

He came back with more cake and more drinks and they talked about light things, things that didn't have to do with love and like and dating and being broken up with. They talked about life and school and clubs and manga and anime, he had seen EVA but hadn't understood it beyond it being about robots fighting monsters, which was a situation that Mob, of course, had to fix.

So they spent hours there at that café just talking. Well Mob talked and he listened. She paused a few times to ask him if she was talking too much. He said that he didn't mind and that he could listen to her talk all day. That was good. By only seeing EVA as another monster of the week mech series, and they weren't even monsters or mechs, he was really missing out. They spent hours there. Drinking and eating, eventually just sitting there with drinks in front of them so that they didn't get kicked out, until Mob's phone rang.

Mom wanted to know if she was planning on coming home for dinner.

It had been that long. Lunchtime had bled into dinner time, not that Mob was hungry, but she did wonder where the hours went. Teru had said lunch and now it was dinner. She had taken up so much of his time. How could she have taken up so much of his time? And she had gone on and on and on for hours.

She had probably been such a bore and he was just too nice to tell her.

She excused herself to go home to her family. She asked him what she owed but he wouldn't take any of her money. He said that she could pay next time. Her stomach did a little flip-flop at the way he said next time. Why she did not know, they were friends so of course there would be a next time.

And there had been. There had been a few more next times. Not always at the same café but always lunch. Sometimes lunch bled into dinner and she had to go home. It was hard to go home, though, because she liked talking to him. She tried not to talk too much but it seemed like every single time there was a long period of silence, the kind that made her think that maybe it was time to go home because she had taken up enough of his time and he had a lot of stuff going on he asked her about EVA.

So of course she told him about it.

He didn't get it. It seemed like he just forgot everything she told him. He asked her what the different angels were about, what the motivations of the main characters were, even what kind of robots the EVAs were. They weren't robots at all but clones of space beings that had come to Earth with the seeds of existence. That just raised further questions, it always did, and she was happy to tell him all about EVA. Even if she was being such a bore.

"Mob, you're anything but boring. I could listen to you all day." He had said, once, when she apologized for going on and on and on again. He was just being nice when he said that, though, Mob knew it. So the next time they met she made more of an effort to ask him questions about things he liked and he ended up going over every single moment of his favorite movies, Flying Dead Pig, which was somehow both funny and scary at the same time.

"Really I'd love to watch it with you…." He had said. Mob agreed. It sounded nice, the funny part, not the scary part. She wondered, though, if he was just being polite about the whole thing. His voice sounded kind of weird when he offered, and he did that thing where he rubbed the back of his head when he asked her over. He was a really nice person to spend so much time with her when he was so cool and popular and she wasn't. She liked having lunch with him and stuff, even if he was too nice and let her go on and on. Not that he minded, he had said a thousand times, but they had been getting lunch for a while now and he had been listening to the same stuff over and over again for a while.

But he still wanted to, and she still let him, even though she was so awkward when they had lunch.

He always let her be awkward. Which was nice. She didn't understand though, but it was nice.

He almost never let her pay, though, which she never understood either and which didn't also feel so nice. She had plenty of money even if she made less than minimum wage. She didn't have any bills to pay or anything, not like he did. He had to pay rent and bills and stuff like that. Well his parents gave him money but he still had a lot of responsibility. She could never do that, be that responsible. Mom still had to remind her to put the cap back on the shampoo, how could she remember to pay rent and bills and stuff?

"It's not that hard, not really, not anymore. I've been doing it on my own for a while now. Honestly everything is so easy since it's just on automatic payments, I mostly just have to worry about budgeting. Not that I even have to worry that much about that, even. Mom and dad always send me more money when I need it. It's not like they can't afford it." He had said over one of their lunches. This time it was a ramen place, she chose, and she loved ramen. She went here with Master Reigen a lot, it was good, so Teru might have liked it too.

He said that he did.

But now he sounded sad.

Which was her fault. It was hard, sometimes, talking to people. She sometimes said the wrong thing without even realizing it. It was ok though, Master Reigen had said before, but she could always rectify the situation.

"I'm sorry that I said that. I didn't mean to make you talk about your parents. I know that it makes you sad. Well I don't know but I think that it does. I think that it makes you sad to talk about them, because you look sad now and I know that I would be sad if my parents weren't around. I don't know. I was trying to make you feel better but I think that I might be making it worse. I'm going to stop talking now." Said Mob as she stirred her broth with her powers. She couldn't look at him. She just looked at her broth and watched the tiny whirlpool she made.

"I…I'm fine, really. You're fine, too. Thank you, actually, for caring so much. You do make me feel better, you know. Out of all of the girls I've…out of all of my friends you're the only one who ever actually cared about…my situation. So thank you for that." Said Teru. He didn't look at her when he said that. He was looking at the mirror in front of them. They were sitting at the counter, there was a mirror on the other side. She saw him looking at her. He saw her looking at him. Mirrors made it easier. She usually looked too much at someone or not enough. Now it was like…something much easier. If that made any sense.

Being his friend made sense. He was nice to her, he changed because of her, and even if she didn't always understand him it made sense, sort of, why they were friends. Even if he was popular and cool and she was just Mob it made sense. They got along and had fun together and it made sense.

But then nothing made sense.

One day everything just stopped making sense. They were supposed to hang out after her school's marathon but she ended up falling and fainting from pushing herself too hard so it had to be postponed. She had been texting him on her walk home to reschedule. He hadn't returned her text, the first one. She had maybe sent another one, just because he usually responded pretty quickly. Then maybe another because she was getting concerned.

Even though you weren't supposed to spam people.

But Teru never minded when she was awkward.

He still didn't respond to any of her texts and she walked home. She got more and more anxious with every minute that passed. Why wasn't he responding? He always responded. Was he sick of her? Was he tired of being nice to her? Was she spamming him and did he decide that he didn't want to deal with all of that? But that didn't make sense because he had changed and he was nice to her, now.

Then she came home.

And it was on fire.

Then nothing made sense.

Mob could not remember anything after finding the fake bodies in her house. One minute she was in her house as it burned down around her and the next she was outside and there were all of these strange auras around and another esper, one that looked like he was really committed to the whole body improvement thing, was passed out on the ground…

And then all of that stuff happened.

Also Master Reigen beat up a blind man. But he deserved it because he had beat up Teru and Ritsu and all of those ex Claw guys. Also he kidnapped the Prime Minister, which Mob later learned was called high treason. So that was a crime. So he was a criminal. Assault and kidnapping were serious crimes. So it was alright for Master Reigen to beat up the blind man. Even though he was blind, very blind, because he had no eyes. Which was kind of scary to look at, when she thought about it, but then she hadn't been thinking about that. She hadn't been thinking about anything but finding whoever was responsible for all of that insanity and telling him to knock it off.

Also she may have been a little mad. Because the blind man beat up two people she cared about and a bunch more that she may not have known but had changed so they were good people too.

And she may have yelled at the blind man.

But that wasn't wrong because he had been doing a lot of bad stuff.

All of those Claw guys were doing so much bad stuff. And they just wouldn't stop. And it all just wouldn't stop. It just kept going and going and going and going. She hardly remembered that day. She remembered the slower parts, when she met up with the others, when she saved Teru from that mean blind man, when Master Reigen had pleaded with her not to go up to the cultural tower, meeting Serizawa, meeting Sho's dad…

It all got kind of hazy after meeting Sho's dad.

There had been a lot of pain. A lot of fear. Then it stopped because Master Reigen was there with a gun and he told her not to move and she didn't but it didn't matter because Sho's dad was so strong and so mean and Master Reigen almost….

She didn't remember much after that.

The next thing that she remembered clearly was Master Reigen, Ritsu, and Teru digging her up out of the ground. She was just so tired afterwards….she couldn't even sit up let alone stand…she was even too tired to care that her clothes had been ruined…

Teru had taken off his hoodie so she could wear it like a shirt, because hers was ruined. Master Reigen tied his suit coat around her waist so it hid the massive hole where her skirt pocket used to be. She was too tired to be embarrassed, almost too tired to say thank you even. Master Reigen tried to carry her in his arms but Teru insisted on carrying her with his powers.

He floated her in front of him for a little bit but his powers were all shaky from what happened, so he ended up carrying her in his arms. She had been so very tired that she could just close her eyes and let herself be carried. She vaguely remembered Ritsu saying something about carrying her home…even though they didn't have a home to go back to….

But that had all worked out. Their house was back together in three days.

In those three days they stayed at the Awakening Lab.

She was out of it for the first night. She was almost asleep when Teru carried her into the guest room that had been designated as hers. The big one, that Matsuura guy said, because she was the hero. Mob didn't care if it was big or small, she just wanted to rest after the day she had. She didn't care that it was the softest bed, and the biggest bed, that she had ever laid in. She just wanted to rest.

"Are you…are you ok?" Teru asked her after he put her down. All Mob could do was nod. She closed her eyes and tried to drift off but Teru decided to keep on talking.

"I'm…I'm ok too. We're both ok. We're great! We just saved the fucking world! Sorry, sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to-" said Teru. Mob was not in her right state of mind. If she had been in her right state of mind she would have remembered that she was not allowed to curse, that good girls did not say words like that. That if her mother, thank God her mother was still alive, heard her talking like that then she would have had a squirt of dish soap in her mouth.

But she hadn't been in her right state of mind.

"We saved the fucking world…." She had said because, yes, she had saved the world. She had almost died saving the world and Teru summed it up nicely. She closed her eyes again when she felt the bed dip. She heard something cloth hit the floor. Master Reigen's suit coat. It had fallen off a lot on the way to the Awakening Lab and Mob was too out of it to care. Besides, Teru's hoodie was long enough on her that it could have been a super short dress.

"I've never heard you curse, before." Said Teru. Mob's eyes were still closed but she could see his aura. Gold. She could see hers, too. Pink and blue. No red, thank goodness. Well red off in the distance if she focused. Sho. He was alright. Not like his dad.

"I'm sorry." Said Mob opening her eyes. She needed to see with her eyes, not her powers. She was just so tired….

"Don't be. Don't ever be sorry, Mob….Shigeko. You saved my life. Don't ever be sorry. I'm…I'm in your debt…and not just from this. You…you saved me. You saved me from Claw and you saved me from myself…and you saved the fucking world…you're amazing….you're an amazing…friend." Said Teru. He was close to her, very close. She was too tired to mind or to not mind or to think much about anything at all.

"You're my friend…." Said Mob. She felt him reach out and hold her hand.

"Is this ok? Is any of this….I can leave if you want me to…or I can stay…whatever you want, Mob." Said Teru softly. He was so quiet that Mob barely heard him. She didn't care, she just wanted sleep. She could barely even feel his hand in hers. His breath across her face. The nervous sort of way his aura bounced around.

She was just mostly tired, on that first night.

And so was he, probably.

So it made sense, then, that he should stay.

Because the more Mob thought about it, as best as she was capable of thinking about anything then, it would have made sense if he stayed. It would have made sense because that way she could keep him safe. That was, if she knew where he was, then she could keep him safe. She could keep him safe and she wouldn't be alone. She wouldn't be alone at all.

She didn't much want to be alone, that first night.

Because she still wasn't sure what she was. Alive or dead. She had…she had given up her body when she took on that explosion. For an indeterminate amount of time she had…she and Sho's dad had experienced instrumentality….sort of. She knew that she lost her physical form and that had let her understand him…sort of like what happened between her and Serizawa…

But she had given up her physical form. It had been scary.

So she didn't want to be alone, then.

"Stay…if you want to…" said Mob. She wanted…she wanted Master Reigen…but he had taken a taxi back to his own home. She wanted him there because she needed to make sure that he was safe, too, and that he was ok….and also because he made her feel safe….but so did Teru…

Him being there made her feel safe.

Even though she was more powerful than he was.

"….sure…" said Teru after inhaling suddenly and deeply, kind of like a reverse gasp. Mob paid that no mind. She just closed her eyes and drifted off. She didn't' dream of anything, she just slept. Lights out. It was morning when she woke up. It was morning and she was disoriented for a moment. It was not her bed that she had woken up in. She was still covered in dirt. Her clothes were still in tatters. But she felt safe, she felt safe because there was someone next to her.

A very good friend.

She was just so grateful to have such very good friends. She could have so easily ended up like Sho's dad. She was just as strong as he was, and just as unstable. She hadn't won. Neither of them had won. They had both lost, in the end. They had both almost died. She could have so easily grown up to be like that….and she was so grateful that she had so many people to keep her from going down that path.

So when she woke up the first thing she said to Teru was that she was so grateful to have him as a friend. Then she hugged him. She hugged him as best as she could while she was laying down next to him. Of course now she was awake and in her right state if mind, so much blushing followed.

Because he was a boy and she was a girl and she had spent the whole night next to him.

But he was so nice, Teru was always so nice, he didn't say anything about how awkward he must have felt. He just hugged her back for a little bit and then left her to get cleaned up. He didn't say that it was awkward but he didn't have to. He got all red and stuttery afterwards. Also he walked out of her room, not really her room but one she was borrowing, very quickly and he walked into the wall while he did it.

Which was something that Mob did not understand. The walls were bright red, everything in this room was shades of red. Red was a very easy color to see. But maybe it was too much red/ Mob certainly thought that it was too much red. She had seen enough red to last her a lifetime, thank you very much. But of course she had no choice of the color of the room she got, which room she got, or anything. Beggars couldn't be choosers after all. If she could have been a chooser then she would have stayed with Master Reigen. She wondered why he didn't offer….

"Because….uh….Mob. I don't really have a spare bedroom or futon or anything, just a couch and uh…well I live in a studio apartment and you're a little too old to be sharing a room with me." He had said later on when she asked him.

"Oh. Because you're a boy and I'm a girl. I understand. That's why me and Ritsu have to sleep in our own rooms, too." Said Mob. Well that made sense. Boys and girls could not share a room. Which was weird because Teru offered to sleep with her. No, awkward phrasing. He offered to sleep in her bed with her in her room but not in her room and not in her bed because they were at the lab so it wasn't at all the same.

Even though the memory of it made her stomach feel all flip-floppy.

She had been too tired to even think about what was happening but afterwards, for a time, it was all that she could think about. Which made her terribly selfish, of course, because there were more important things to think about than how it felt waking up next to Teru after the most terrifying day of her life.

But that day was over and she was alright. All of her friends were alright. Everyone had survived and their injuries were healed so that meant that everything was fine. She went back to school and so did everyone else and things got back to normal. Well not for everyone. Sho ended up having to live with his mom….which was not normal for him…actually a lot of people had been displaced. So thinking that everything had gone back to normal for everyone wasn't the thing to be thinking about. She was lucky, actually, that she still had somewhere to live. A lot of people's houses, a lot of those skyscrapers were apartment buildings, were destroyed.

Just like Teru's apartment was.

Well Claw had blown it up so it was kind of the same. Mob still felt bad, even though his apartment hadn't been one of the ones that she picked up and threw at Sho's dad…but she still felt bad. He had lost everything that he had. All of his clothes and books and games and movies, he said that he preferred physical storage mediums because of their permanence, were destroyed. Probably all of this other important stuff, too. Family pictures and stuffed animals that he had since he was a baby and souvenirs from school trips…things like that. Things that you kept in a box in your closet but sometimes looked at when you were all alone and you felt like remembering good things like that.

He had lost all of that.

And he was homeless, too. Well he was living at a hotel. He had texted her that. He had found, well his parents had found, him a hotel room to stay at until something more permanent could be found. Their people were on it, which according to Master Reigen meant that they were very rich, because rich people had people to do things for them. That was the difference between being wealthy and being rich, he had said. Then he got really quiet for a moment and told Mob that she was a good friend for being there for Teru during this hard time.

Teru really must have been having a hard time. Being away from everything that he had ever known, losing all of his stuff, all of it. So Mob texted him a lot. Sometimes she called him, or he called her, but they mostly texted. Testing was just easier because that was something that you could do while you were doing other stuff. Not that Mob should have been texting in class, or at work, or at the dinner table…

"Shigeko! Put that phone away or I will take it away. This is family time." Said mom. She had been texting Teru during dinner, which was against the rules. But she just wanted to see how he was doing. He said that he was fine, he was having dinner in his room and watching a movie. That seemed pretty sad, actually, because he was all alone.

She had her whole family, plus Sho, but he had no one. Not even parents.

"I'm sorry. I was just texting my friend Teru. He's just all alone, that's all, and I just wanted to see how he was doing." Said Mob

"Hanazawa?" asked Ritsu. He had a tone, there. Sho rolled his eyes and stole a piece of food off of his plate.

"Hana, I think that the kids are really hungry. How about I go in the kitchen and whip up-" said dad looking towards the kitchen. He began to get out of his seat but om grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"Honey, sit. We're eating right now and there's plenty for everyone. Shigeko, no texting…boys?" said mom

"Hanazawa's a guy." Muttered Ritsu as he stole some food off of Sho's plate.

"Shigeko, no texting boys at the table." Said mom. She said that while she got her mom look, which looked like Ritsu's Ritsu face. Sho was just shaking his head and laughing a little too himself. Mob did not understand. Not at all. But she kept on eating.

She got back to texting Teru when dinner was over and she was in her room all by herself. It was ok because she was alone and she didn't have to interact with anyone. It was nice, being all alone and texting him. It was almost like he was right there with her.

Because that would have been wonderful.

Because he was nice and such a good friend.

And he could just be a friend.

Because he was Teru and she was Mob. He was a nice person but he was also so cool and popular. He always dressed so nicely, unlike her he was fashionable socialized, and he always knew just what to say and what to do. He never said too much or too little but just enough. He had this way of talking where he could make anything seem interesting, even going though pictures of clothes that he had planned to buy. She never cared too much about clothes. She liked pink and skirts and dresses and long socks and T-shirts with characters on them. She didn't have outfits, she just had clothes. He had outfits and he always looked so cool…really cool. She didn't.

He said that he didn't mind how she dressed, which was nice, but then he showed her some stuff that would have looked good on her.

"_Not that there's anything wrong with the way you dress, I just thought that this would suit you. I mean, it's not like you could ever look bad in anything."_ He had texted her that during their late night conversation. He had sent her pictures of pretty but complicated, short, and itchy looking dresses. She was still grateful that he had thought about her.

He thought that she would look pretty dressed like that.

Then, suddenly it seemed, she cared what she wore. That morning she had gone through all of her clothes. She had a lot of skirts and dresses but they were all long. None of her dresses were like the ones Teru showed her, he said that people in Tokyo, which he had been to a few times he said, dressed like that. Mob didn't dress like that. She didn't dress like anything. Mom got her clothes for her and had been getting her the same kinds of clothes for her entire life.

Mob pulled out a dress and frowned.

This one was long, too. Long and kind of big on her. Mom always bought her clothes in a size or even sometimes two too big. She said so that she'd have room to grow. That was practical, money didn't grow on trees but had to be earned through hard work, and being practical was important.

But so was being pretty.

So Mob decided to do something she had never done before in her life and buy her own clothes. She had her own money, Master Reigen didn't pay her a lot but he did pay her, and she could also ask Teru's advice about what to wear. He knew a lot about clothes, even girl's clothes. When you didn't know what to do ask an expert, Master Reigen had told her that.

Normally she would have asked Master Reigen's advice about this, she asked his advice about everything after all, and he did dress nicely. He always wore really nice suits. They suited him, maybe that was why were called suits. But she didn't ask his advice about this. He already thought that she looked pretty…the thought makes her smile…but she also wants Teru to think that she looked pretty. She opened her messenger and scrolled up to what he had said.

He said that she could never look bad in anything, which was the bare minimum standard of appearance. She didn't want to just not look bad, she wanted to look good. She wanted him to think that she looked good, that she looked pretty. So she went to the store by herself to find something that would make her look pretty…

She had no idea what would make her look pretty.

The shopping center had not been destroyed or even mildly damaged so it was still opened. There were plenty of people shopping, dad had said that when something really bad happened people emptied their pockets to make themselves feel better and that it was very good for the economy. Mob wondered if that was what she was doing. Something bad had happened, something really bad, and now she was shopping. Well either way it was good for the economy.

Which dad and mom had both been worried about. Terrorist attacks were bad for the economy, they said, because they made the country look unstable. They were both kind of worried, dad worked in a finance office and mom worked as an accountant, but they told her and Ritsu that everything was going to be ok.

So Mob believed them, but she didn't ask for money to get a new dress. Not that she even needed one, which was why she hadn't asked for money in the first place, but she did want one. This should have been simple. She had been clothes shopping with mom before. Mom got her and Ritsu's clothes from a department store. Mob didn't much like the clothes from there. The clothes went from children's to misses. Well Mob wasn't a child anymore and she wasn't a misses, either.

So she went to the shopping center.

But she had no idea where to go. There were so many stores. Some of them sold clothes that were ripped and black and not something Mob would ever want to wear. Some of them sold lacy, sparkly, formal dresses for formal occasions, which Mob liked, but they also looked really expensive. There were also places selling school uniforms, or clothes made to look like uniforms which was something that she just did not understand one bit. Why would you want to wear a uniform when you didn't have to? Why would you voluntarily wear one? They were itchy and uncomfortable and you didn't even get to choose them.

Clothes were confusing.

And overwhelming.

She was about to call Master Reigen but she didn't. He dressed nicely but…but he didn't know as much about clothes as Teru. She called him, mostly just to get his opinion, but then he insisted on coming down and helping her himself. Even though Mob said that he didn't have to. She didn't want to make him drop everything that he was doing and come running to her.

Not that he had ran.

He had flown, he said. When she told him that he didn't have to come all the way to her he said that he wanted to. He said that he would always be there for her whenever she needed it. He had a tone there. His voice dropped kind of low and for reasons that Mob didn't understand it made her mouth go kind of dry and her face get kind of red.

They sort of stood there for a minute before he told her to follow him. He knew where all the good stores were, he said, which was something that she was grateful for. Master Reigen was right, it was always best to ask an expert. Teru led her to a store with loud sort of music, not Mob's usual kind but nothing she disliked, low lighting and a lot of clothes just sort of everywhere. Not like where she and mom shopped. At the department store everything in the children's section was arranged by color and occasion. Instead of a rack of pink dresses, then the same dress in blue, then the same dress in yellow and so on and so forth there were just racks of all sorts of colors and types of everything. Mob was grateful that Teru was there, otherwise she would have been so far out of her depth that she would have been drowning.

He asked what her size was, well he asked if it is was ok to ask her what her size was, and she told him her size because why wouldn't that be ok? They were clothes shopping, of course he would need to know what size she was. He couldn't just guess, who knew what he would come back with.

He came back with a lot of stuff, actually, and he didn't guess.

He handed her a stack of dresses that went over her head and pointed her to the changing room. He sat on a chair, mom said that chairs in clothes stores were called husband chairs, and waited for her. Mob didn't think too much on the subject of…well him…she just changed. She knew that he was outside the changing area and she was inside the changing area but she had that same self-conscious feeling she got sometimes, like someone was looking at her…but that was dumb. Nobody was there. She got that a lot. She got it at work even when Master Reigen was all the way in the other room and of course couldn't have been looking at her even if he wanted to. She got it at home when she could hear Sho talking to Ritsu through her wall and she was lying in bed reading or on her phone or just trying to sleep but then she heard his voice and she pulled the covers tighter because it felt almost like he was there and she was just in her pajamas, sometimes even just in a big T-shirt that fit her kind of like a nightshirt but even shorter…and then she'd feel all weird…really weird…

She had that feeling now.

She had that feeling as she pulled off her T-shirt, the EVA t-shirt that used to be Ritsu's and mom didn't like her wearing because it wasn't for girls. She got that feeling as she looked at herself in the mirror in just her undershirt and skirt. She looked like…she looked like she always had. Same old everything. There was no reason to have this feeling. Even if he had been with her, she forgets how to breathe for a moment, it wasn't like she was anything to look at. She still looked like a boy, she didn't even need a bra yet, mom had said.

Undid the button on her skirt. Even though she knew that she was nothing much to look at, and that nobody was looking at her anyway, she still had that feeling. That weird, kind of nervous, kind of scared, kind of excited, kind of giddy feeling. She pulled the first dress on over her head, well she tried to. Oh. There was a zipper in the back. Good thing that she had powers.

The zipper was kind of uncomfortable, even against her undershirt.

But this dress was short and sparkles and ruffles and looked pretty. Well she thought that she looked pretty. She pushed her braids back behind her head. If the dress was pretty did that make her pretty for wearing it? Or was the fact that she was wearing the dress make the dress itself less pretty. She'd have to see what Teru thought.

It took her a minute to remember how to walk. Right. She had to show him. She had wanted his opinion, he was the expert after all. She just had to walk out of that dressing room and over to him. Simple. She knew how to walk. She knew how doors worked. She knew what to do.

So she did it.

"How do I look?" she asked. He was on his phone when she asked that. She shouldn't have snuck up on him like that, she did tend to walk quietly, because when he looked up his dropped his phone. She caught it with her powers and handed it to him. Well she tried to, his hand wouldn't close around it, so she just rested it in his lap.

"If I don't look nice I'll just go change and-" said Mob. If she looked bad dressed like this then she was ready to abandon the entire endeavor. Like Master Reigen said, sometimes you have to run away.

"Shigeko…Mob. You are so pretty. So damn pretty…" he said. Then he closed his mouth and his aura flared out brightly. Mob's did too, when he said that. Damn pretty….nobody had ever said that she was damn pretty before…and the way he said it…his voice was low and kind of deep and breathy and-

"I'll go try on something else!" said Mob because she felt so weird, then. So very weird. It was like she wanted…she wanted something but she didn't know what it was. It was like…like the feeling she got when she kissed Tome…before…but bigger.

She decided not to dwell on this. It was probably a health class thing. New and confusing feelings towards the opposite sex and the like.

She decided not to think about it because it wasn't leading her to anywhere good. It was like scratching a mosquito bite. The more you scratched it the better it felt but scratching would ultimately make it worse because you eventually scratched your skin opened and then you could get an infection and maybe even die.

Mob certainly felt like she was going to die.

Because he kept on looking at her, but really looking at her. Even when she ran out of things to try on and bought what she could, he wanted to pay but that didn't make sense because they were girl's clothes. If they were both boys and he paid then it would make sense because he could also wear the clothes. Not that boys couldn't wear girl's clothes and vice-versa but he didn't seem like the type of boy to want to wear girl's clothes.

So she bought what she could with the money she had. Clothes sure were expensive. No wonder mom and dad complained so much about the cost of living. She didn't spend all of her money, though, because that would have been poor financial planning. She learned about that in economics class. School taught you a lot of important things, she didn't agree with Sho about it being a useless place where they sucked the will to live out of you, but she did wish that they taught more social skills stuff at school.

Because she really was not sure what she was supposed to do now.

She had achieved her objective, well she would have if she were a videogame character, and now she wasn't sure what to do. She and Teru just sort of stood in front of each other silently while the world flowed around them

"Are you hungry? I mean, we haven't had lunch together in a while. I'd love to get lunch with you, I mean." Said Teru

"I'd like that." Said Mob. She would. She was getting pretty hungry and she didn't really want to part ways with him just yet. They ended up getting ice cream crepes, which weren't really a food if you went by nutritional value, but they tasted good and that mattered more. Maybe even better. It was either the crepe place or the company she had with her, Mob would believe either. She and Teru ate at the fountain that the shopping center had, the one that took your yen but didn't grant your wishes.

Because it had been years and she and Ritsu still hadn't gotten a cat.

And Mob still didn't have complete control over her powers.

So that fountain was full of small denominations of coins and smaller Mob's broken dreams.

Something which Teru found very funny.

"No, no, no. I'm not laughing at you, Mob, just what you said. You're just…sometimes you're just so…you. You're you and I love it." Said Teru. He was sitting next to her. One hand held a crepe and the other was free. He put his free hand down on the concrete fountain ledge that they were sitting on. It was close to her own free hand, very close. Close enough that if she moved a centime they would be touching.

So he moved that centimeter.

The side of his little finger was pressed against the side of Mob's little finger. The water in the fountain stopped flowing. It got caught in the air and stay there. Mob forgot how to breathe again, she wondered if this was serious, and Teru just sort of looked at her. She looked back at him.

He reached over and dragged his thumb across the corner of her mouth.

All the water came crashing down at once. Her back was soaked. His too, probably.

"Sorry! You just had a little something there…" said Teru. His thumb was still lingering at the corner of her mouth. She nodded, though, because she didn't trust herself to breathe let alone speak. If she spoke she would have said something dumb like 'I've read this manga before. This is the part where you kiss me.' Or 'I've watched this show before and now I'm thinking about you in a way that I know I shouldn't because we're just friends and if I lean over and kiss you I might ruin our friendship because I've probably got the wrong idea because real life is nothing like anime and just because I see something on TV I shouldn't try it in real life and also Teru kiss me right now before I explode!'

"Um…thanks." Said Mob softly. He was still touching her and he was still looking at her. He was close now, closer than he had been before. Mob was struck with the feeling, the crazy feeling, that he was going to kiss her. She wouldn't have minded. She had kissed someone before. Tome always just kissed her, though. She always just said 'I'm going to kiss you now' and then they kissed. This was different. The more he looked at her, the more he touched her, the more she wanted him to kiss her.

He didn't kiss her.

He ate the whipped cream though.

Which had been a lot. Too much, actually. Far too much and she didn't even know why. Because it had been so close to her mouth? Because he had just come out and done it? She didn't know why it had been too much but it was. That weird feeling was back, the one that was good and weird at the same time, so she excused herself.

Well she said that she was all wet with fountain water and that her mother did expect her home for family time, which they had been having a lot of since the house burnt down. Mob didn't get why mom and dad were so worried, she and Ritsu were fine and they didn't even know that the house had burnt down, or even that she and Ritsu had been involved in anything to do with that awful day at all.

But they still had family time. It consisted that night of watching TV together, which was still a family activity. Mom was home more, now, since her office got destroyed. Dad's was still there but they had to move everyone to a different part of it, he said, because the building wasn't totally structurally sound.

Mob was sorry.

But she didn't say sorry because mom and dad could not know that she and Ritsu had been involved with all of that.

"What happened to your poor little red haired friend, Ritsu? I would have thought that he would have wanted to stay." Said mom. Mom always said things like that about Sho. Sho said that it didn't bother him so long as she still let him have dinner with them and stuff.

"He's back at his own house, mom." Said Ritsu. He didn't tell mom that Sho wouldn't be gone for long, mom and dad didn't need to know about that either.

"Hmmm…" said mom. Then she did that thing that she did where she looked at everyone like she was an action movie star scanning the room for danger. Her eyes rested on Mob. She stared right back. She hadn't done anything bad, she had even remembered to put the top back on the shampoo, so she had no reason to be nervous.

"Shigeko, where were you today? I saw you coming home with shopping bags." Said mom

"I was shopping." Said Mob simply. Mom was still looking at her.

"For what, Shigeko? If you needed something I would have taken you. Who knows what you've come back with? I hope you've saved the receipt." Said mom

"I did but I'm not going to return anything. I like what I bought. I bought some new clothes." Said Mob

"I really wish that you would have asked me to go with you. Don't you like our shopping days? You should have asked me to come with, you've never been shopping on your own." said mom. Mob nodded, even though she didn't really like them all that much. Mom always got final say over what she got and she had never minded it before but now…it was nicer having final say over her own clothes. She wasn't little anymore and she could go to a stop and buy her own clothes.

Well with some help.

"I do mom. We can go shopping if you want. I wasn't on my own, though, I went with my friend. He helped me find nice things." Said Mob. Ritsu was staring at her now. Dad turned up the volume on the TV.

"Hey, come on, Trivia Showdown is on! Let's see who can-" said dad

"He? A boy?" asked Mom. She did her mom look, there. Mob wondered what she had done to deserve that look. Mom was so hard to read sometimes. She kept her cards close to her chest, which meant that she didn't always say what she was feeling. Also when they played cards as a family mom held her cards really close. But they weren't playing cards now.

"Who?" asked Ritsu. Mob hoped that he wasn't going to do what he did before and tell Teru not to hang out with her. He had better now, she had made herself perfectly clear that she could run her own life. She never tried to run his life for him.

"Yes. Teru. He's my friend. Sometimes we have lunch and today we went to the shopping center and he helped me pick out some clothes." Said Mob. Ritsu looked like he wanted to say something but didn't. Mom gave him a look, a pointy sort of look. Dad just kept on watching TV. He was trying and failing to answer the questions the show was asking.

"What is the Kalahari?" he said, even though the category was the Japanese royal family. Mom shook her head.

"So it looks like this falls on me, again." Said mom

"Hey, when they were born we had an agreement. You had to deal with….guide all the girls we had through this and I had to help the boys. As soon as Ritsu brings a girl home or even says one word, just one word about a girl, then I will be all over that. Just you wait, Hana. Unless you want to deal with that." Said dad. Ritsu looked down. Mob could see his aura, there, and it looked kind of sad there. She would have asked him what was wrong but mom said that she had to change into what she bought and show the family.

So that was what Mob did.

"Very…modern." Said Dad as he glanced at her briefly before turning towards that TV. Ritsu looked at her, his eyebrows rose, and then he looked away, too. Well most boys didn't care that much about clothes.

"Shigeko, what happened to the other half of that dress?" asked mom. Dad shook his head.

"Hana, let it go." Said dad

"This is how it was when I bought it." Said Mob. She didn't that it was super short, not really. She had seen girls in dresses that were little more than long shirts. She had pajamas shorter than this. This was poofy, too, which may have counteracted the shortness. Teru said that it did, that the shape of clothes mattered. Then he said that she was pretty again.

And it seemed like he meant it.

"Did Hanazawa pick that out for you?" asked Ritsu. There was the Ritsu look again.

"Yes. Please don't be mean to him like you were to Tome…or you always are to Master Reigen…or pretty much everyone who I spend time with. Ok?" asked Mob because she did not want him being mean on her account, or for any reason at all.

"Shigeko…I suppose that you're getting older…." Said mom. She pinched the bridge of her nose and breathed out. Dad reached over and patted her on the back.

"Yes. I am getting older." Said Mob because, well, she was. She didn't know why mom had to point that out, though.

"And I suppose that…there are normal things that you're going to want to do…" said mom

"Yes. I do a lot of normal things. Thank you." Said Mob. Mom usually only brought up the abnormal things she did. Like how she liked to watch only specific scenes from shows she liked on a loop, or how she sometimes lost control of her powers, so it was nice that mom noticed how normal she was. It was hard work, sometimes, being normal so it was nice that mom noticed.

"….yes. You and I are going to have to…talk…later." Said mom. Then she watched TV so Mob did too. Dad kept on shouting out the wrong answers. Ritsu was always right. Mom just told dad to stop while he was behind. She didn't talk to Mob again for a while.

Ritsu did, though.

He knocked on her door later that night, after everyone went to bed.

"Sister…can I ask you something?" asked Ritsu. Mob sat up. Ritsu could ask her anything. He was her little brother and she loved him.

"Ritsu, you can ask me anything. Well you can ask, anyway, but I might now have the right answers. Like how earlier when I thought that-" said Mob

"It's not about TV." Said Ritsu

"Oh. What is it? Is it about how I accidentally used your toothbrush? Because it was an accident. I was just tired and-" said Mob

"You used my toothbrush?" asked Ritsu

"…..I'm sorry. I rinsed it off and washed it off with bathroom soap so you didn't get my germs." Said Mob. He stared at her for a moment before he shook his head.

"That's….that's fine. I just…Hanazawa isn't being…he's being nice to you, right?" asked Ritsu

"Yes." said Mob

"He hasn't been…pushy or anything…right?" asked Ritsu

"No, of course not." Said Mob. Hanazawa was always asking her what she wanted to do and where she wanted to go and what she wanted to eat.

"I just…I know how he is with girls and I just don't want you to get hurt." Said Ritsu

"…he's nice to me. He's mean to other girls?" asked Mob. Teru wasn't a mean person…anymore. But he had been. But he had changed. Right?

"Not mean…he just…I just know that he's been with a lot of girls, he kind of used to brag….and I just don't want him to…brag about you. Or treat you like…if he ever does anything to hurt you just tell me, ok? Just tell me and I'll make him pay." Said Ritsu

"Oh. Ritsu he's not mean to me at all but I'll tell you if he ever is. He used to be a mean person but he changed. Please, don't be mean to him or tell him he's not allowed to talk to me. Ok?" asked Mob

"…people don't change." Said Ritsu

"That's not true. Sho changed. When we met he beat you up. Now he's your friend. People change, Ritsu." Said Mob. People changed, they had to change. If people could change then that meant that she could change, too.

People had to be able to change.

Well they did, all the time, but not in the same way. people got older and getting older meant that things changed. That was what mom said. Mom said that they had to have a girl's day. That meant that they were going to eat food and go shopping, mom had said, and also mom was going to talk to her about things, she had also said. Then they were going somewhere, mom had said. They were also going to have a very big talk, mom said, about things. Important things, mom had said, but not bad things. Just things, important things. Things that Mob had to hear while she was trapped in the car, the child locks were on, and Mob had no escape.

Mob was not doing things like that.

Mob didn't have any plans to do things like that any time soon.

Mob knew about these things, she had been to health class.

Mob also didn't appreciate being ambushed with a trip to the doctor's office, and she wasn't even sick to begin with.

And a trip to the Sanrio store did not make up for that. Neither did MobRonald's.

In fact that trip to MobRonald's had so ingrained itself into Mob's subconscious that the next time she went, not with her mom but with Master Reigen, she could barely eat. She could barely even look at him. She kept expecting her mom to be there and to be asking her a bunch of personal questions and telling her that it was all normal, that she was feeling normal and everything was normal and that she had nothing to be embarrassed about because it was all normal.

She wished that mom would have gone back to talking about how weird she was.

But no, she had just gone on and on and on about how normal it all was. How of course she would be interested in boys, then she said people, and after that she always said people instead of boys, and mom also said that it was normal to want to look pretty for boys, people, and want to do things with boys, people, and also how she had to be careful because one thing led to another and then another and another.

And that was how Mob and Ritsu got there.

The rest of that conversation was something that Mob would have liked to forget. What she wouldn't have given for third impact.

Even know she wished that it would all come tumbling down and that she would melt into a sea of orange LCL. But she did not melt into orange LCL. She didn't melt into anything at all. She just stared down at her salad and fries as Master Reigen told her…she wasn't really listening actually. She was mostly just staring down and trying not to think about all the stuff mom told her, there, in that MobRonalds not too long ago.

"Hey, what up?" asked Master Reigen. Right. She hadn't been paying attention. That had been rude.

"Nothing, I was just thinking. I'm fine, Master." Said Mob. She looked up at him and looked away. He was close, the tables here were kind of small. He was so close and there and his tie was kind of lose, they had to chase the spirit around that they were supposed to exorcise, and also he was kind of sweaty and as usual she didn't think that it was gross…

The weird feeling was back.

"Are you sure? You're eating like a bird, Mob. Come on, you're a growing girl, eat up." Said Master Reigen as he stole on of her fries. Why did he have to say that? She did not want to think about how she was growing and becoming an adult…she didn't want to think about that at all.

"Don't say that I'm growing up. Please." Said Mob

"Ok, ok. You're still a kid. I didn't mean anything by that, Mob. You're still a kid." Said Reigen

"I'm not a little kid anymore…but I don't…" said Mob

"Mob, come on, talk to me." Said Master Reigen stealing yet another one of her fries. She pushed them all towards him.

"My mom said that we were going to have a girl's day…then she talked to me about…stuff…and I didn't want to…but she said that it was important…I don't know why. I just went shopping with Teru. That's all." Said Mob. He made a hmm noise, the same one that mom made sometimes, and for a moment she was afraid that he would start up about her growing up, too.

Thankfully he didn't.

"One of those talks, huh? Yeah, I feel you. My mom was big on those. Not my dad, well when he was around, but yeah. Let me guess, she told you that you were going to have this big, great day?" asked Master Reigen

"Yes. She said that we were going shopping and to get lunch." Said Mob

"Yeah, my mom did that too. 'Arataka, get in the car. We're going to the mall.' Then she'd trap me in the car for hours and just…yeah. One time actually tried to jump out…not that you should! Seriously. That was one of the stupidest things that I've ever done." Said Master Reigen

"Ok. I won't jump out of a car, I know better anyway. I don't think that I could get hurt, though. I lived through the fight with Sho's dad." Said Mob

"…right….ANYWAY your mom means well. She's just worried about you. This is a new chapter of your life and there's a lot that could go…well…wrong. There's a lot that could happen to you and she's just worried." Said Master Reigen

"I'm not going to have a baby." Said Mob crossing her arms. Master Reigen began to cough. She used her powers to nudge his arm with his drink. He took it and began to drink deeply until he ran out and his drink made that sound it did when you sucked up the last of the soda.

"Well that's good…good thinking….." He said after a while.

"I know. Mom kept on telling me that I had to be careful and that one thing led to another. I don't know why she said that. I learned about that in health class already…and I'm never going to do stuff like that anyway. It's too…it's kind of scary. I break things when I feel big feelings, that's why me and Tome broke up. If I feel big things then I can break something…or someone. You saw what I can do when I try." Said Mob softly. She looked down at the table. She felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeah, Mob, I've seen what you can do if you try. You try so hard every single day, ok? You aren't…it's not as bad as you think it is. It's not…you have a lot more control than you used to. You worry so much…but you shouldn't. Mob, you did all of that because you were trying to. You hardly ever lose control and…yeah. You're a great kid…person." said Master Reigen. Mob could only nod.

"Ok? So don't beat yourself up. You…uh…you're too damn young for all of that, I think I mean I can't tell you what to do or what not to do. Trying to tell teenagers not to…yeah…is like telling the sun not to rise….but you are way too young. You shouldn't be so…afraid…or yourself, though. You shouldn't be." He said Mob listened to every word he said, she hung on every word he said.

He wasn't afraid of her.

It was a simple thing, something she had always known, but at the same time it was so…reassuring. He saw what she could do, all of what she could do, and he still wasn't afraid. If he wasn't afraid of her…and he had no powers at all…then maybe she should be...less afraid…of herself. That she would lose control. But if she stopped being afraid of herself then something bad might happen…but by being afraid of herself she was making herself even more afraid.

Like trying to put out an oil fire with water, maybe, which you were not supposed to do.

But there was no point in agonizing over being afraid of herself…about this sort of thing anyway. Regardless of what mom thought she would never do anything like that. She was too nervous, too afraid, too…she wouldn't know what to do anyway. It was embarrassing. What if she messed up? She literally had no idea what she was supposed to do in that situation. That was why she got so embarrassed when Tome…and also Tome never warned her. Maybe if she had more warning she could…prepare herself.

Not that she would ever even get the chance to.

She couldn't get back together with Tome because she was dating Inukawa now, the thought doesn't make her as sad as it used to because Tome's happy, and she can't date anyone else that she likes because they don't ever like her back. Well they couldn't because Mezato didn't like girls and Sho didn't like girls either.

But good for Ritsu. He found the love of his life.

And even if she liked Teru like that she couldn't tell him. He would most certainly reject her if she confessed to him. He could get pretty girls, popular girls, girls that weren't Mob. Girls who were prettier and looked older and didn't wear undershirts that came in a pack of five for five hundred yen. He just wanted to be her friend, that was all. He as nice, that was who he was. He was nice to her and he was just her friend and that was why she could not even entertain thoughts of confessing to him. That was why she couldn't even think about confessing to him.

Or thinking about what it would be like to kiss him.

Or to hold his hand.

Or to share a bike with him.

Or to share an umbrella with him.

She usually got off that train of thought when she got to the umbrella sharing. Umbrellas made her think of Serizawa, she got him a new umbrella to replace the one that got incinerated when he saved Master Reigen's life, and that led to her thinking of sharing an umbrella with Serizawa, but in the Shoujo way, which was very…ick. Not in a mean way, just because he was Serizawa. The only older person she liked like that was Master Reigen, even though it could never happen. He was twice her age and people his age did not date people her age. That didn't mean that she couldn't think about him, though.

She did think about him a lot.

Even though she knew that she shouldn't have. She just couldn't help it. He was just so…him. The way he talked to her, the way he walked, the way that he always knew just what to do…the way that he was good at everything he tried…the way that he listened to her when she talked and always knew just what she should do…

Teru was a lot like Master Reigen, and not just because he had light colored hair and blue eyes you could get lost in. So maybe that was why she liked him. Was that a good reason to like someone? Because they were like someone else you liked? Or was that a mean reason? What counted as a good reason for liking someone? The last person, boy person, she liked was Sho and that was because he was nice and funny and had blue eyes and light hair, his was red, and freckles…and also because he liked to talk and he liked to talk to her…

Maybe she just had a type.

Mob had heard that before, that people had types of people that they liked. Maybe when it came to boys she liked boys like Master Reigen. When it came to girls she liked…she liked girls who were nice, who she could get along with, who were certain of themselves, and who knew exactly what to, well, do. She liked that, knowing that someone else knew what to do because she just…didn't a lot of the time.

Even now she didn't know what to do. She liked Teru. She was so deeply in like with him that she had no idea what she was supposed to do. This was the same sort of in like that made her all nervous but happy…and there was that weird feeling that she could not fully place. Was it good? Was it bad? Did it get any better? Could it get any worse? Did she want it to be over? Did she want it to last forever?

It just wouldn't quit.

She didn't know what it was but it just wouldn't quit.

Seeing him made it bad but not seeing him made it worse, and it was a while until she next saw him. He was getting his life back in order, he had said. He was moving to a better hotel and looking for a new apartment and stuff like that. Lots of stuff that Mob had no idea how he was supposed to take care of on his own, because he was just a couple months older than she was, but he was getting it done. She liked that about him, he always seemed to know what to do. Even though the whole thing with him almost being an orphan seemed sad. In anime kids lived alone all the time, but this was real life, and kid were not supposed to live alone. Mom may have been mom and dad may have been dad but they were still her mom and dad and she loved them so much…

Poor Teru.

He seemed to be coping well, though. He had said before that being alone did not bother him in the slightest. So he was probably fine. Her information on him was becoming quite dated, though, because he was too busy to see her in person. He texted her when he could, lots of nice things, and sometimes he even called when he said that he missed the sound of her voice, but it wasn't the same as seeing him, as actually being near him. Mob wondered, sometimes, if she would ever see him again. Of course those were times when she was being dramatic, of course she would, he was always saying that me missed spending time with her.

It just wouldn't quit.

She didn't know if it could get any better or any worse, all she knew was that she wanted, really wanted, to see him again.

They next time they had lunch it was at the restaurant of the hotel that he was staying at.

"I'm sorry I've been so distant lately, I've just had a lot going on. I'm going to assume that you had a lot going on, too. I mean with the schools opening back up and…stuff...I mean…I am so sorry." Said Teru as he stirred his coffee with his powers. Mob tried to focus on him. There were a lot of people coming and going around them.

"That's ok, Teru, really it is. I'm just happy to be here with you now, and I haven't had that much going on anyway. They reopened the school so I've been doing school stuff. Oh and Sho's been practically living at my house so I've been hanging out with him…but I already told you that a while ago. Sorry." Said Mob. She stirred her drink, warm milk and vanilla, with her powers too. She felt like she had to do something.

"Right…Sho." Said Teru. He had a tone there that Mob couldn't place.

"Yes. He's really nice, and he has a hamster. He's going to get another hamster so his hamster, her name is Sunflower, can have a friend. Sho says that hamsters are social creatures and that isolation would drive anything crazy. I don't think that his hamster is going to go crazy anytime soon, though, because he built her a hamster mansion. He sent me pictures. Do you want to see?" asked Mob. She was talking too much again. She always talked way too much to him, probably because he always let her talk way too much.

"….maybe later. Anyway what else have you had going on? Besides school and your friends I mean. I mean I know that we text but it's not the same as actually getting caught up in person. I've missed you." Said Teru. He was leaning forward and resting his face in his hands. That was how he sat when she started talking a lot about EVA. She talked a lot around him in general. It wasn't polite. Conversations were like ping-pong, Master Reigen had said. It needed to pass back and forth but you also needed to put the battle on your terms…she didn't understand that last part but she understood the concept of a back and forth.

"I missed you too…um…nothing much has been going on…um…Sho ate all of my cereal because Ritsu said that Sho couldn't have his….what about you, Teru? What's been going on with you? It must be hard, I think, because your whole apartment blew up. I mean I've never been to your apartment but I'm sure that it must have been nice. You lived there and you really like nice things. I just think that it must be hard for you after everything that happened. I'm talking too much again. I'm sorry. I asked you questions to get you talking, because I like it when you talk, and then I ended up talking too much. I'm still talking too much. Why am I talking so much?" Said Mob. She looked down at her drink. She was being awkward again.

"I don't mind, I've told you before." Said Teru

"I know…but you just said that to be nice. I mean…"said Mob

"No, I mean it. I love hearing your voice, the things you have to say. I just…Mob…" said Teru

"I'm awkward and weird, it's ok. We have to accept everything about ourselves, good and bad. Master Reigen says-" said Mob

She felt a hand on the side of her face coaxing her upwards.

"Teru…" asked Mob. She could feel her powers reaching out around her. Everything on the table, the plates and forks and spoons and drinks and cream and sugar and those little packets of jam that they gave you but you couldn't take home with you all started to float.

"Shigeko…Mob. Stop it. You're not awkward and you're not talking too much. I like it. I like it when you talk to me. You…you're the only person who's asked me that. Everyone else…all of my school friends think that it's so…cool…that I get to live here and I had to buy all new, well, everything and ok for a little bit I told myself that it was but…but you're right, it is hard. It's hard and…and thank you for…sorry. If I'm overstepping or…yeah." Said Teru. He let her go and sat back in his chair. Mob nodded. She tried to remember how to breathe.

Because she had forgotten how to.

Because he had been so close.

She smiled, just a little, because that had been…a lot of things. Like Teru was. Nice, being the main thing. That had been nice and he had been nice. She knew this feeling, though, and she knew that she could not feel it for Teru. First of all she was not the type of girl that he would have wanted to go out with. She wasn't pretty or popular. Master Reigen thought that she was pretty but it was more of a cute kind of pretty, not the actual kind of pretty that he probably wanted. She had friends now, too, but she was not popular.

Not in the real way, the way that he was. Popular, she meant.

But she had still forgotten how to breathe and she was still staring at him and he was staring right back at her and his face was sort of red but that was ok because her face was sort of red, too. She could hear people going about their way around her. They were all talking and walking and jostling and bumping…but it sounded far away.

Because Teru was looking at her. Looking at her like he had before and touching her…

And it, that feeling, just wouldn't quit.

"Am I…overstepping?" asked Teru. Mob shook her head.

"No. I don't…mind." Said Mob. She didn't mind one bit. In fact she wanted him to…to do it again. To touch her again. Because he was there, right there, and his eyes were so blue and his hair, his actual hair which had grown back, was so yellow…but not a fake sort of yellow...it looked nice and…

He put his hand over hers.

"Tell me if I'm overstepping." Said Teru. Mob nodded and swallowed. He was almost holding her hand…that was what boys did when they liked you. Boys didn't just say it, not like girls, or at least Tome had…they showed you. Even when boys like other boys they never just came out and said it. They always showed it…

Did that mean that Teru….?

Or was he just being nice?

"Because I don't want to overstep with you. I don't want to ruin what it is that we have." Said Teru. His voice was low there, that sort of lowness that made the hairs on the back of her arms and neck stand up but in a good way.

"Teru….you're holding my hand." Said Mob remembering how talking worked.

"I am. Do you want me to stop?" asked Teru

"N-No. I like it but…but I don't want to misread the atmosphere…" said Mob

"Misread it?" asked Teru

"Yes. I can't always get a clue and sometimes I can…mess up. It's just that you're holding my hand and you're not my brother and when a boy who's not your brother holds your hand then it means that…that he likes you…but you can't like me." Said Mob

"Why not?" asked Teru in that same low way that made the weird feeling even worse, or better, than it had been before.

"Because…because you're you and I'm me." Said Mob

"What's that supposed to mean? You're you, Mob, and I'm me. Why couldn't I like you?" asked Teru

"Because I'm not pretty or popular and you could get a girlfriend who was pretty and popular." Said Mob

"Maybe I want one. Maybe I know a girl who has a few very good friends and would literally die for them. Maybe I met a girl and I was a complete and total dick but she saw something in me that was good. Maybe I changed for that girl, to be someone that she would want to spend time with. Maybe I spent more time with this girl, this amazing girl, and I got to liking her. Maybe I got to thinking about her day and night. Maybe thinking about her, talking to her, got me through a very difficult time in my life when I had to do it all practically alone. Maybe I want to be with this girl more than I've ever wanted to be with someone in my entire life. And maybe, just maybe, I think that she's so damn pretty." Said Teru. Mob blinked.

"Oh. She sounds really nice. You should tell her how you feel. I'm so happy for you that you've found someone who-" said Mob. Well didn't that hurt worse than losing your body because you took on a massive amount of psychic energy and it had nowhere to go so you had to give up your physical form? But it was ok because he had found someone he liked and-

"Shigeko…Mob. That's what I like about you. You're you." Said Teru

"I am. I'm me and you're you and you, who else would we be? I bet that if you confessed to the girl you were telling me about she would say yes. You're really nice and you're such a good person and she'd be really happy to be with you." Said Mob

"Alright then, let me ask her. Mob, do you like me?" asked Teru

"It…it's like you're confessing to me…" said Mob. He laughed.

"I am. Mob, I like you. Do you like me?" asked Teru. He laced his fingers in hers. She could only nod. Her hair was doing that thing that she did when she lost control of her powers. The table itself was starting to float. She felt like she was starting to float. She was like a balloon held by only a string, the string of his hand in hers.

"Be my girlfriend." Yup. That did it. She was starting to float up from her chair and people were starting to notice and he was the only thing keeping her from hitting the ceiling.

"Alright." Was all that she said, all the Japanese that she remembered. Speaking was hard. Everything was hard. The only thing that she could focus on was him. He liked her. Teru liked her. He liked her back and he asked her to be his girlfriend. Him.

Later on, when she went home, she literally walked on air.

She couldn't help it. She was just so happy. So very happy. This was great, everything was great. The world was brighter, the stars were brighter, every single thing was brighter. It was like someone had taken a highlighter to the world. Perfect. Everything was perfect. She was so happy….happier than she had ever been in her life.

Teru was his boyfriend.

She was Teru's girlfriend.

And it was wonderful.

Holding his hand was wonderful. They did a lot of that. Whenever they were together he laced his fingers in hers. He laced his fingers in hers as they held hands across the table, because they still got lunch. They had lunch at the hotel that he was staying at. The food was good, not only café type stuff but also dinner type stuff. He liked steak, she didn't mind it. She usually got cakes of some kind, not only because they were cheap but also because mom never let her have cake for lunch or dinner.

At some point lunch with Teru turned into dinner with Teru.

Because of the relationship upgrade, he said. He said that he had never dated anyone seriously enough to take them to dinner, only lunch. That made Mob feel all…weird. She felt weird because while she liked being his girlfriend she also didn't like to think about him ever having another girlfriend. Holding her hand. Telling her that he liked her. She just…she didn't like it.

Jealousy was not a good feeling.

So she tried not to feel it. She had been in a relationship before, too, so she had no room to complain. She reminded herself that she was Teru's girlfriend now. He wanted to be with her, that was why he had asked her to be his girlfriend. That was why he had said all of those nice things to her when he had been confessing to her. He liked her. He wanted to be with her.

And she wanted to be with him.

She chose to focus on that, not the icky gross feeling that was jealousy. He liked her, he could have had anyone else but he picked her, and that was what mattered. She was the one that he wanted to hold hands with. She was the one that he asked to be his girlfriend. Her. Mob. And that was what mattered. Just him and her in that moment, and every moment, be it hanging out or texting or talking or lunch or dinner.

Well it wasn't just him and her at dinner. After a week straight of having dinner with Teru mom said that she had to bring her new boyfriend over. They wanted to meet him, she said. They were also going to make him feel welcome, she said. She looked at Ritsu when she said that. Mob knew that Ritsu would make Teru feel welcome. He knew Teru, he had helped saved Ritsu from Claw, and they had all saved the world together, too. So of course Ritsu would be nice and not mean like he was during the few times when Tome had dinner with their family. She didn't know why Ritsu wouldn't be. He knew Teru and he knew how nice of a person that he was.

"Hanazawa." Was all that Ritsu said when Teru sat down at the table from there. Mob thought that he might have been in a bad mood because Sho wasn't there. He had a mom and she missed him, Sho's words. Teru didn't seem bothered.

"Kageyama." Ritsu gave Teru a look. Teru gave it right back. Dad didn't look at anyone, he just looked down at his phone. Mom gave Ritsu a look. Mob just looked around. This was not a good atmosphere.

"None of this, Ritsu. We all want your sister to be happy." Said mom. Dad nodded.

"Yes, that's what we all want. Hey Shigeko, do you still like vanilla cake? How about I just run out and-" dad tried to get up but mom grabbed him by the arm.

"At least it's a boy this time." Mom said in the whispery sort of way. Mob stared at her parents. What was with them? Well mom, mostly, she seemed kind of like she was in a mom mood, which was like when Ritsu got into a Ritsu mood. Ritsu seemed like he was getting into one of his Ritsu moods, too. He didn't eat his food so much as stab it and rip it apart. He seemed mad about something….probably about her liking Teru.

Well then.

At least he wasn't being openly mean.

Not that he got a chance to. Every time he opened his mouth to say something mom started talking. She asked Teru a lot of questions. Where he went to school, if he had a job, if he was in any clubs, what his grades were like, what his parents did, where he lived, things like that.

Teru answered them all. He didn't look awkward or anything like that, even when her mom starting asking about his parents. They were busy running their company, he said, and he was living in a hotel because his apartment got destroyed in the thing with Claw. That got her parents talking about the cost of real estate and people that they knew who had been displaced.

Teru even talked to her parents. He talked to them just as effortlessly as he talked to everyone else. Mob wished that she had that kind of power. What use was it being able to lift skyscrapers and set the sky on fire when she couldn't hold up a conversation to save her life? But that was something that she liked in Teru, it was something that she liked in people in general. She was grateful, too, because her parents liked him and all of this conversation didn't give Ritsu the chance to say anything mean.

Not that he didn't have the opportunity to later on.

After dinner, and Teru helping with the dishes because he was nice like that, Mob showed Teru her room. She kept the door wide opened because mom said to. Teru had closed it about three quarters of the way.

"It's still, technically, opened." Said Teru before looking around her room. Mob knew that this was not what mom meant by opened, Tome tried this trick too, but she decided to leave it be. Tome did that when they kissed. Mob liked kissing. She liked kissing Tome and she knew that she would like kissing Teru. Would this be…would this be it? Would he finally kiss her?

"I bet that I can guess your favorite color." Said Teru as he picked up the pink kitten plushie she kept on her desk.

"It's pink. I like pink, I mean I think I do. Mom keeps on getting me pink things and I guess I like it. What's yours?" asked Mob

"I don't have one favorite in particular." Said Teru moving over towards her wardrobe. It was opened, she didn't much see the point in closing it unless she needed the mirror, and he ran his fingers across the clothes she had in there.

Mob tugged at her dress. It was one of the ones that she had gotten on that shopping trip they had went on a while ago. This one was kind of short, above her knees, and it suddenly felt even shorter. She felt like he was looking at her, even though he was looking through her clothes with a very serious look on his face.

"We need to go shopping again, no offense." Said Teru looking over at her. She felt her braids starting to float.

"We can. I like…I like shopping with you." Said Mob. She reached over and held her braids down with her hands. He smiled and walked over to her. He put his hands over hers. He was close, so close. She could smell him, he smelled like boy's body spray. It was nice. She didn't know why people complained about it, the way boys smelled. He smelled nice. He smelled like boy's body spray and lotion and something that could only be described as 'Teru'. He was close, so close, so close that she could feel him breathing.

"Me too. You're so damn pretty, no matter what you wear you're so damn pretty." Said Teru

"I think…I think that you look nice all the time, too. Not even because of how you dress….and I like how you dress…but also because you, yourself, look nice. I mean…I like the way you look. I like you." Said Mob softly

"I like you." Said Teru. He laced his fingers in hers when he said 'you'. Mob nodded as best as she could. Teru was close enough to kiss her. She wouldn't mind it if he kissed her. She would have liked it, actually, if he kissed her.

"I-I like you too…um…you're very close" said Mob. His other hand let go of her braid and tilted her face upwards.

"I am. Do you not like it?" asked Teru. Mob shook her head.

"I do…I like it…um…" said Mob. She wanted to ask him to kiss her…but she had never asked before. It seemed like he wanted to…but then why didn't he just come out and tell her that he was going to kiss her? That was what Tome did, she just came out and told Mob that she was going to kiss her.

"I can stop, if you want me to." Said Teru

"But you aren't doing anything." Said Mob. He kissed the corner of her mouth. Mob made a noise that she did not mean to make, that she had never made before in her entire life. She could feel how red she was, she didn't even need to close the wardrobe door and look in the mirror. She could feel herself trying to rise off the ground.

"Tell me if I do something you don't like…or something that you do." Said Teru. He kissed her there again. She could feel herself trying to float. He just held onto her tighter. This was…this was…this was a lot of things. She felt good and nervous and happy and weird and it was just so much, almost too much, but he was there and she was there and she wanted to kiss him so badly.

"Mom says keep your door opened all the way." said Ritsu. Mob fell to the floor. She covered her face. Her little brother had seen that. Her own little brother.

"Ritsu, please, knock first." Said Mob, her voice muffled by her hands. She didn't have to look at the two of them to know that they were mad at each other. She could see their auras. Ritsu was mad, very mad. Teru was mad too, but less mad.

"Kageyama, why do you open doors when you know fully well that you aren't going to like what's on the other side?" asked Teru. Mob got up and straightened out her dress.

"Why are you messing with my sister like this?" asked Ritsu. Mob shook her head. She did not like fighting. She did not want her little brother to fight with anyone, let alone her boyfriend. Could this possibly get any worse?

"I'm not messing with her, in any sense of the word, and it's really none of your business anyway." Said Teru. Yes. It could get worse.

"Ritsu, stop it. Why do you have to act so mean to everyone who I bring over? You promised that-" said Mob

"I know what I promised but I know how he is with girls." Said Ritsu. Mob looked at Teru. He looked away from her.

"He's nice to me, Ritsu. Why do you have to-" said Mob

"I'm trying to keep you safe, sister." Said Ritsu

"I'm not that person anymore." Said Teru

"I know, you're a good person. You changed and that means that I can change too." Said Mob

"You don't have to change. You're perfect the way that you are. Everything about you is so perfect that it hurts to be near you knowing that-" said Teru

"My Love In Bloom." Mob and Ritsu both said at once. Mob was excited, she loved that movie! And so did Ritsu! And apparently so did Teru so they all had that in common and maybe they could all just stop fighting and sit down and watch it in peace and then with this common thing between them they could all be friends and-

"Well…yes…" said Teru. That was weird, he looked all nervous. Why? Lots of boys loved romantic dramas. Ritsu did. That was one of Ritsu's favorite movies. If it weren't for that movie then Ritsu would have had Sho spit flowers all over him and confess his love.

"We love that movie! We can all watch together. Sho too, he's in your room right now." Said Mob. She heard a door open and then light footsteps.

"Who's talking about me?" asked Sho. He looked at everyone for a minute. Teru didn't really look at anyone. Ritsu was glaring at Teru. Mob just sort of watched everyone.

"Suzuki." Said Teru kind of meanly.

"Hanazawa." Said Sho with a shrug and a wave.

"Sho." Said Ritsu not looking at him. He had a tone there, one Mob couldn't place.

"Ritsu." Said Sho poking him in the side.

"Sho." Said Mob because it looked like everyone was saying hi to one another. Kind of meanly, too. She didn't get it. She really just did not understand boys. Well she could understand Ritsu, he thought that she was too dumb to run her own life. She could maybe understand Teru, if it weren't for Claw his parents wouldn't have left him all alone. Also Claw blew his apartment up. So maybe she did sort of understand.

Well at least they all had something in common.

"Do you want to watch My Love in Bloom? Teru likes it too. We could all watch and stop fighting." Said Mob simply

"Who's fighting?" asked Sho bouncing from foot to foot like they were in Mortal Kombat. Mob smiled. He was always so funny. Teru didn't think he was funny, though, Mob could tell because she was rapidly becoming more well acquainted with everyone's mad faces.

"Ritsu and Teru, but I don't know why. Well I do know why, because Ritsu thinks that I'm too dumb to run my own life." Said Mob

"I give up!" said Ritsu

"Thank you. Ok, Ritsu gives up so we can all be friends again." Said Mob happily.

"Wait, is this about you thinking that Hanazawa's trying to mess around with your sister?" said Sho. Ritsu turned red, it must have been a family trait because Mob turned red too. Teru looked everywhere but at Sho.

"Why do you even care? He's a cool guy. He held his own against Shimazaki so he could totally protect her and stuff. That's important. You fight good, Hanazawa." Said Sho. He reached over to fist bump Teru. It took a moment but Teru returned the gesture.

"….thanks, you too…" said Teru

"….I care because I don't want my sister to get hurt. Shigeko…I just don't want you to get hurt and I know that I promised that I'd leave you alone but…." Said Ritsu quietly.

"Ritsu, can you please just stop it? I just…that was so mean. I'm sorry I said that to you." Said Mob

"I think it was pretty justified. He is being pretty nosy and overbearing right now." Said Teru

"Hey, don't talk like that about him." said Sho putting an arm around Ritsu.

"I was mean and I'm very sorry. I shouldn't talk that way to my brother. I love you so much and I should be nicer to you. You should…you should be nicer to me, too. I know that Teru used to be mean, and kind of a jerk, but he's different now. People change all the time. Sho changed. When you met he beat you up but now he's the love of your life." Said Mob but maybe, just maybe, she had said the wrong thing. Based on the fact that Ritsu made a noise that she was sure wasn't a good one, Sho had let go of him and was staring with both his eyes probably getting really dry from not blinking. Teru just stared at the two of them.

"That's….good. Good for you, Ritsu, and you too, Sho…" said Teru

"I'm….I'm the love of your life?" asked Sho. Mob could see his aura. It was visible, probably to normal people, too. Ritsu was just as red as Sho's aura, but his own aura was dark blue.

"….I don't know. I'm still figuring it out…." Said Ritsu. Mob was happy for her brother, she was, but she also maybe felt like she had misread the atmosphere.

"….I'm still….I mean I really like you but…me too." said Sho

"This is the most awkward moment of my entire life." Said Teru looking between all of them.

"I've had worse." Said Mob simply. On the grand scale of awkwardness this was nowhere near the top. There was the time when she was four and ran out of the house naked…or the time when she fell down and everyone could see her underwear….or that one time when she accidentally went to the wrong classroom when she started middle school.

Teru agreed that those were pretty awkward times. They got to talking after Ritsu and Sho went to Ritsu's room to talk. Loudly, then softly, then they were quiet. Mob's door was still opened, though, because she did not want Ritsu to come back in and start that fight up again.

"My most awkward moment….well it's actually something I'm kind of ashamed of." Said Teru. They were sitting on her futon. He was next to her, his shoulder was touching hers. She could see her aura, it was crashing against his. It was nice. This was nice.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want me to know." Said Mob

"No, it's just…you're right, I used to be kind of a jerk. Mob…you're special." Said Teru

"Everyone is special. Master Reigen says so. Since everyone is so special then we can all be who we want to be." Said Mob

"No, I mean yes, I mean you're special…but you're special to me. Mob…I used to…you're the only girl that I've ever been with where it's actually meant something. Shigeko…I was such a jerk before. The way I am with you…I've never been like this with another girl before." Said Teru

"Do you mean nice?" asked Mob. She could see Teru being a jerk to whatever girlfriends he had before her. But he was different now and that's what mattered.

"Yeah…but not just that. One time I dated, exclusively dated, three girls at once, just because I could." Said Teru

"But…that's not what exclusive means. It's ok, sometimes I don't know some words and-" said Mob

"No, I know what it meant, I just didn't care. I didn't care and I was such an asshole and I'm sorry for who I was…so ok your brother is right to worry…because I didn't stop all of that even after you…taught me the value of humility." Said Teru

"Do you mean when I exploded at you and I beat you up, shaved off all of your hair, ripped off all of your clothes and threw you into the sky?" said Mob

"…yes…then…I didn't stop with that particular….way of being…until after you and I started to…hang out more. You're different. I care about you. I care what you think, what you have to say, and what you think of me. I genuinely care about what you think of me, not just in terms of my social standing. I just…you're so…this is hard." Said Teru. He had her hand in his, now. He was facing her. She was facing him.

She didn't know how to feel about all of that. On the one hand deceiving someone romantically was a really bad thing to do. Really bad, because love was the best feeling of all…and so was really liking someone…and there was a certain sense of sacredness to relationships…they meant something.

A scary thought. What if he's going to treat her like that?

A thought that chases that one away. He's changed. He's changed and that's what matters.

She just has to remember that.

"I mean…alright. Before you I thought that I was the protagonist of the entire world and I just did whatever I wanted. It was just…hard for me to let go of all of that…but I have. I'm an extra and everyone's an extra…except for you…I just feel like you're a main character and I'm just an extra….but you won't like that either…just…you're special to me and I care about you and I'm sorry I used a line from a movie but sometimes words are hard and it's just easier to…well if it's been said better already…" said Teru

"Sometimes words are hard for me too. I don't mind. I like that movie a lot..." Said Mob. They were closer, now, very much closer. He still held her hand. She wondered if they could stay like this forever…but then how would they change clothes and bathe and stuff? So maybe that would have been a bad idea, holding onto him forever, but she wanted to. She had a lot of bad ideas, then. A lot of them.

She could have kissed him.

Which was just the worst, wasn't it? He was telling her all of this and she couldn't stop imagining him kissing her.

"Me too…but not the ending. I hate endings like that." Said Teru

"Me too. She wanted him to be happy so she had the flowers removed and she could never feel love again. The first half is better, when you think that they're going to get together. I like movies like that, when people get together…and when people get together in real life...too." Said Mob

"Yes…I like that. Thank you, by the way, when you defended me…and thank you for forgiving me, too. For everything, for the person I used to be." Said Teru. He was still close to her, maybe even closer, and that weird feeling was still there and it just would not quit. She didn't know what it was, exactly, but it wouldn't quit being…there. Like this thing settling on her brain telling her to just lean in and kiss him…but of course it couldn't be that simple. She wasn't Tome. She couldn't just lean in and do it…could she?

"I forgive you, Teru. You changed, that's what matters. It's important…" said Mob forgetting the rest of what she was going to say. He was close now, so close. It would only take ten centimeters…nine centimeters…eight centimeters…

"Wait, hang on." Said Teru. He pulled away from her. Mob was leaning maybe a bit too far forward and became over balanced. She caught herself with her powers. Teru was messing with his phone. He stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth and muttered something in a language that she couldn't understand.

The there was music.

Mob didn't speak a crazy amount of English but she had heard this song enough times that she knew it by heart.

"This is Fly Me to the Moon, the version from the twelfth episode of the DVD release." Said Mob. Teru blinked.

"Wow…you really like…this show. I mean I know you do, and I know that your favorite song is komm susser tod and that means come sweet death…and that's not very romantic in my opinion so I went with this." said Teru. He sat back down, facing her.

"Wow…you really do listen to me…" said Mob. He sat directly across from her. She watched him. She wanted him to come back to being close to her…she wanted that so badly…the weird feeling was there…it was there and it just didn't quit and-

"And I always will….so tell me if I do something that you don't like." Said Teru. He was close to her, so close that she could have kissed him if she wanted to…but she couldn't just kiss him…because what if she did it wrong. He kissed so many people before her, probably, and she had only had…about forty nine or fifty real kisses…so she could have so easily messed this up…if he was even going to…but if he wanted to she would have…

"Or something you do." Said Teru. Then he kissed her. Then all the lights in the house went out. She didn't care. She was kissing him. She was kissing Teru and she felt so warm and happy and she didn't care that it was dark and everyone was yelling and her door was opened and she'd probably either get scolded by mom or end up fighting with Ritsu and that now the lights were flickering because his hand was on her waist and now his other hand was on her back and she had her arms around his shoulders and-

Her door slammed shut.

The lights went back.

A note was slipped under her door. She called it over with her powers.

"Oh, this is from Sho I think. That's weird, it's mostly in hiranga. Dear Ritsu's big sis. I'm writing this note in the dark to tell you that Ritsu is planning on killing your boyfriend. I'm not super sure if he's serious, I mean he's always serious, but I think he might be serious. I can't let that happen because I have enough people I have to visit in prison as it is so please tell him to…he wrote run away really big….wow Sho can write fast….also thanks for getting Ritsu to open up about his feelings…happy face…salutations, Sho Suzuki….post script, you guys kiss loud." Said Mob. She dropped the note down onto her futon and covered her face.

"Well…can't say that I've ever had this effect on anyone before." Said Teru. He leaned down and pushed her hands from her face before kissing her again, this time quicker and probably a lot quieter. She didn't notice. All she knew was that she had just kissed him and it felt nice and she wanted to again but he did have to go home, mom was yelling up the stairs, and she didn't ever want him to go…but she also had school in the morning…but she didn't want him to go…

But he had to go home because mom came upstairs and yelled through the door. Also Mob was in trouble for closing her door, not that she was going to say that Sho was the one who did it. She didn't want to get Ritsu in trouble. Also they had fought enough.

Why didn't Ritsu get it? She could run her own life. She could tell if someone was a jerk and if someone was nice. She could tell if someone changed and if someone was just lying to her. She had even known, at the back of her mind, that Master Reigen had been lying to her for all of those years. She was not dumb and she was not little. She was the big sister and he was the little brother. She was the one who was supposed to be all nosy into his life and telling him who he could and could not date. But she was not going to do that because she knew how it felt…and it wasn't nice to Sho either. She trusted Sho, trusted that he changed, and trusted that he would never do something so awful as to break Ritsu's heart.

Thought maybe saying that Sho was the love of his life was a bit much.

Even though it sure seemed like that. Ritsu was always talking about Sho, sometimes every conversation came back to him. Usually weird or dumb stuff Sho did but it always came back to Sho somehow. Also he and Sho had traded jackets at some point, which signified a very deep relationship. At least Tome had said so. Her hoodie was too big, though, and the pockets were full of crumbs, and Mob's had been too small for her. But still, they had traded hoodies and slept over almost every night and maybe even kissed so of course Sho was the love of Ritsu's life.

Would Teru be the love of her life?

When she thought about the love of her life, the person she could see herself being with for all of eternity, or the day she died, it depended on if she passed on or not…that person had always been Master Reigen. But he was an adult. No matter how many times she imagined it, how many nights she spent tossing and turning thinking about him, she knew that it couldn't be. She was a kid and he was an adult, and not that sort of adult despite what Ritsu thought, so of course they couldn't be together.

But Teru liked her. Teru was a lot like Master Reigen, and not just because they had almost the same hair and eye color. Teru was someone who listened to her, who made her feel better, and who could acknowledge when he had been a jerk and change. She liked Teru. Maybe he could be the love of her life. Maybe they could grow up and go to university together and get married and have a bunch of babies and they'd all be espers and they'd be happy and all of that other adult stuff.

Not that kind of adult stuff.

At least not yet.

But when she got older…or less nervous…but right now she just liked kissing. Even if it made her feel all weird. When she got older she'd see what all of that was about but now…now she'd just stick kissing him. She didn't if or when she'd want to do any of that stuff, she didn't know if or when she'd want to tell him he was the love of her life…or even feel like he was…or even know that she was…but right now she was his girlfriend.

And that was enough for now.


	8. Katsuya Serizawa

Mob and Teru hadn't ended up getting married.

Actually they had broken up. He went off to university, she stayed in Seasoning City and went to two year school. They tried the long distance relationship thing. It hadn't worked out. They were too far away and they hardly saw each other. They said that they'd talk every day but, well, that was easier said than done. Teru was busy with his new school and his new friends. She had been busy with her new school and her own friends and, well, work.

She was working a lot more, now, since she finished high school.

She was spending more and more time at work with Master Reigen…and Serizawa, of course. He was there a lot, too. She spent time with the both of them and it was nice. Even though Master Reigen told her that she didn't have to come in quite so often, that she could enjoy her youth, that her life was her own.

"I know that my life is my own Master, I want to be here. I like to spend time with you." Said had said that. It was simple. She chose to spend her time with him. Now she could. She didn't have school all day, no, two year mini university, not that it was actually called that, took up a lot less of her time than high school. Now she had more time to spend at with Master Reigen. Serizawa, too.

They actually ended up going to the same school.

He had been going to school on and off since he left Claw. He had to get caught up, it took a while, and he kept on backsliding, which took even longer, but in four years he had managed to make it to school. They hadn't planned on going to the same school though, it just ended up happening that way. She thought that it was a really good coincidence. Teru didn't think so. Well, it seemed like he didn't.

"So you're still spending time with those guys?" that was what he asked. She couldn't see him but she knew that tone of voice. Something was bothering him. She didn't know what, he didn't tell her what, but something was bothering him. Conversation was stilted after that.

Then he came by to visit one weekend. She said that they could hang out after she was done with work. Master Reigen needed her and Serizawa was off visiting his mother. Ritsu wouldn't help and Sho was forbidden from helping because of the incident. Mob didn't know what the incident was, exactly, but she knew that because of it Sho had been forever barred from helping with any and all jobs ranging from exorcisms to using the paper shredder.

So really Mob was the only person for the job.

And she may have lost track of the time.

And she may have stopped for ramen with Master Reigen afterwards.

Teru wasn't happy and Mob didn't blame him. She had been selfish, then, and he was right to be mad at her. They had so precious little time together and she went and…yeah. So she said sorry. She said that she had been with Master Reigen and then lost track of the time. That just made Teru madder.

"It's always Reigen with you and it always has been." Was what Teru had said. Mob didn't understand what was so bad about that. She liked Master Reigen, that was true, but Teru didn't know that. It wasn't like she was doing anything with Master Reigen anyway. Everyone had those kinds of thoughts about people, that didn't mean that you had to act on them. Teru was right, she shouldn't have lost track of the time, but that was no reason to yell at her.

Or accuse her of all kinds of crazy things.

Or try and make her choose between him and Master Reigen.

Or getting mad when she said that she needed some time to think.

Or breaking up with her the next day.

That was hurt. Mob had been through a lot of pain in her lifetime. She had been thrown through walls, stabbed, choked, set on fire, and she had even given up her physical form once, too, when she took the explosion from Sho's dad. None of that came close to even a tenth of the pain that breaking up with Teru had caused.

Even if they were still friends.

She had locked herself in her room for a week, only coming out to use the bathroom. She had tried locking herself in the bathroom but they only had the one bathroom that also had a tub and her family needed to bathe and stuff. So after mom told her to let someone else have a turn in the bathroom she locked herself in her room.

And no, she didn't get the idea from Serizawa.

It just seemed like the logical thing to do. Existence was pain. The world was nothing but a big pit of suffering and despair. The logical thing to do was to live in her room forever and wait to get old and die alone. She was going to die alone anyway, obviously, so why not do it in her room in the dark under her covers sobbing into the hoodie she borrowed from Teru back in middle school and never gave back. Yes. That was what Mob had decided to do with her life. The only problem with that was that nobody would leave her be.

First mom pounded on her door and told her that she was being ridiculous.

Then dad knocked on her door and asked if she wanted to go get ice cream and talk.

Then Ritsu threw her door opened and demanded to know what Teru had done to her.

Then Sho came in through her window with some cats and a jug of milk.

Then Ritsu came home a day later with a lot of dirt on him and his clothes all ripped up.

Then mom knocked on her door nicely and asked if she wanted to talk about anything.

Then Master Reigen came over with takoyaki and talked to her instead of asking if she wanted to talk.

"Mob, it hurts. I know that it hurts. This is probably the worst pain that you have ever felt in your entire life. You thought that you and this kid would have forever and now it feels like forever is gone. You can't think of the future, the present is painful, and the past is agony. I know, I've been there. I was your age, actually. Her name was Mariko and I was going to ask her to marry me after we finished high school…heh…I had a ring and everything. I mean, it was just a cheap stainless steel ring with a fake ruby in it but…yeah. Then she said no. She went off to university far away, one I had no hope of getting into, and she met someone and…yeah. It hurt. I wanted to die. Not kill myself! Just…lay down in my bed and die. I did just that. I only left my room to take a piss, sorry, or steal from my mom's secret liquor stash. It hurt, it hurt so much….and it still does…but not as much. I'm not going to give you some stupid platitudes like 'there are plenty of fish in the sea' or some shit like that. You're an adult now, Mob, you deserve more than that. What I will tell you is that, at some point, this will get better. There will come a day when it doesn't hurt as much. Then another and another. There'll be stretches of days at some point when you don't even think about him. There'll be stretches of days, too, where all you can do is think about him…and it'll hurt. But one day it'll hurt less. Then there'll come a day when…when you meet someone else…and you will. I mean, I didn't but you are not me. You will, Mob, because you're an amazing person, and that is not a platitude. Throwing away a diamond doesn't make it any less valuable, it just makes you an idiot." That was what he said. It made her feel better, so much better.

She pulled the blanket off of herself and sat up when he said that. He was sitting on the floor by her futon, she could barely see him in the dark. She didn't know if it was dark outside or light, she had covered her windows a while go, but it didn't matter. He was there. In her house. In her room. Sitting there with her and trying to make her feel better.

And he did.

She hugged him.

She hugged him when he finished talking. She hugged him so tightly, and not just with her arms, with her aura too. She held onto him and cried. Which was awkward, looking back, but at the time she wasn't even thinking about that. She just wanted to be held. She just wanted to feel better.

And she did.

For a time.

But then he had to get going and she went back under the covers. He said that she should take as long as she needed, that these things took time, so she took her time. She didn't know how long she took but she took her time. Well it was a long time, days and days in her room, but she was going to come out…eventually.

But eventually was a long time.

And she was worrying people.

There was a knock at her door one day. If she hadn't seen the purple of his aura she would have thought that it was her family again, or Sho with more animals, but instead it was Serizawa. He was worried, he said, and he asked her if he could come in. He asked her a million times if it was alright to come in. She told him yes a million times.

"Sorry! It's just that….I never liked it when my mother came in my room when I was….when I lived with her. So I didn't want to intrude or set you off." He had said. She told him that it was fine. She also told him that he could sit down next to her. He did. She sat up. He just sort of stared at her.

"Don't do this. It's…I know how easy it is. I know how easy it is just to stay here. I mean….I know how easy it was for me. But you are not me. You're stronger than me, stronger in the real way. I saw you…I saw you go and face certain death…and win. I've seen you do so much…so much more than I could ever be capable of doing. So please, please, don't do this. I just…I don't want to see you…become like me. I just…you're my friend. You're the first friend that I've ever had in my entire life. You're…you matter so much and I…you're stronger than this. Don't get stuck in here like I was. Please. It's just…I don't know what you're feeling. I've never been broken up with before…not for real…but I do know what it's like to lose someone you care about…to be cast aside….I can't imagine why anyone would cast someone as…everything…as you aside….but…you'll get better. But please, please, please come out of your room." He had said.

She had been in her room for way too long.

Master Reigen said to take her time and wait until she got to the point where she could leave but…but she was hurting the people she loved by doing this. She had been through worse, so much worse. Almost dying…almost losing everyone she loved in this world was worse than this. She needed to…she needed to get out of here.

Because she was hurting people.

She hugged Serizawa, too. Hugging him was different than hugging Master Reigen. He was bigger, broader, and tenser. He didn't hug back, not for a while. He just made her room shake, actually. He made her room shake before he hugged her back tentatively. Like she would shatter into a million little pieces if he hugged her back as hard as she was hugging him. She didn't hug him for as long as she hugged Master Reigen though, Master Reigen had hugged her back, but it had been nice.

He was a good friend.

He excused himself right after that. He also said that he was sorry for bothering her and intruding into her home and room like that. He left before Mob could tell him that he hadn't been doing any of those things. She needed to tell him. She needed to because then he'd walk around thinking that he was a bother, and he was not at all a bother. So she decided, then, that she would leave her room for something other than going to the bathroom or getting a glass of water.

Well she would have, if it hadn't been nighttime, but it was nighttime and she had nowhere to go but the bathroom. She hadn't had a shower in a very long time. It felt good, that first shower. She rinsed the grease off from her hair, she sweat from her body, and the salty tear tracks from her face. Good. It all felt so good. She felt good.

Well not all the way good, but more good than she had been laying down on her futon and crying.

The next day she went to class for the first time in days and days. Someone was sitting in her seat, not that they had assigned seats she just liked sitting at that particular seat near the window and midway through the room. Now that it was taken she would have to displace someone else and the entire room would get trapped in a game of musical chairs but without the music. So just chairs then.

Not a very fun sounding game.

She stood at the back of the room thinking of where she'd like to sit. In the back? No, that was where trouble makers always sat. In the front? No, that was where the good students always sat. Somewhere in the middle, maybe…but the middle was filling up. Alone. She was alone and she had nobody that she knew that she could sit with, she missed a lot of school due to all the crying, and now she wanted to cry again because feeling better did not mean that she felt normal or even good…it really didn't. She still felt bad and alone and she would always be alone because the person she had loved most in the world was gone and she'd always be alone-

A familiar aura.

Purple. Bright purple. Skittish and nervous, darting away from and back to it's own. A sort of pain to it like static electricity if you stood in it for too long. She knew that aura. Serizawa. He was near, getting nearer. His aura found hers. Purple reached out to pink and blue, she still didn't know why she had a two colored aura when everyone else's, barring Sho's dad, had a one colored aura. She didn't know a lot of things about how she worked or her powers worked but she was done asking.

Nobody had the answers, anyway.

But somebody did have the answer to her current problem. She had nobody to sit with. Her usual seat was taken. But now she did have somebody to sit with. She knew him, she's known him for four years now. Since that day, the day that they met in the cultural tower and they fought but made up. They were friends, now, and had been for some time.

It was so good to have someone familiar nearby.

Because nothing felt familiar anymore.

He sat next to her on that day and got her caught up. They were both learning about business so they actually had a lot of classes in common. It was his first year, too. He had gone to that school before, but to study to take his equivalency tests. Elementary, middle, and high school. She did not envy him. Entrance exams were their own sort of trouble, she could even imagine how difficult an equivalency test could be.

"It wasn't that the test was hard…I just kept on backsliding….but I got through it. You and Reigen really helped." He said. They sometimes hung out in the times after school but before they were due back for work. Serizawa was still getting used to being out and about in the world. He could go to and from places that he needed to be but just hanging out in a crowded place, or even a non-crowded place, was a lot. That was why he usually only went out when Master Reigen decided that they were all going to get dinner.

It was kind of weird hanging out without Master Reigen. He really liked to talk. Mob could talk, sometimes she even talked too much, but she needed someone who also liked to talk…or someone that would ask her about things she liked. Like EVA, she could go on and on and on about EVA…but that was bad manners. Teru only listened because he had been in love with her…and he wasn't anymore…and it hurt…

But she still had to make an effort.

So she tried her best to keep the conversation going. Conversations were like ping-pong, you had to keep the ball in the air with the help of the other person. Master Reigen had said so. Mob had pointed out that you could just fold up the other half of the table but Master Reigen said that doing that in a conversation was talking to yourself and if you went around doing that then people would think unkind things about you, like you were crazy. Not his words but the meaning Mob got from them.

So Mob kept up the conversation.

She asked him about his life. She knew…not a lot about him, actually. She knew what she had seen on that day in the cultural tower. The love he had for his mother and Sho's dad, different kinds of love thank goodness, the way he cared so deeply about the other members of the Ultimate Five even though they weren't his friends for real…the way he was so afraid of himself and the world.

He still kind of was.

But he had made progress. He was working on talking to people more even though it was slow going. He had a million little things that he had to do from laying out his clothes for the next day to making sure he kept a light on even when he slept so that he wouldn't backslide and end up trapped in his room. He was going to school and taking care of himself and making sure that he called his mother at least once a week. It was hard but he was doing it.

"I'm happy for you, Serizawa, I really am. I'm sorry that I didn't know how hard it was for you, though." she had said after he told her all of what he had to do just to get out the door. She never asked, before, and she didn't specifically ask now. They had gotten here from…how had they gotten here? He was an easy person to talk to. He played a good game of ping pong, The ball that was the conversation had been going back and forth and back and forth for so long that not only had they lost track of where they were but also of the time.

It was nice talking to him.

Not like talking to Master Reigen, which was it's own kind of nice, and didn't require her to play nearly as good a game of ping pong, but still nice.

Kind of like talking to Teru had been. They could talk for hours and hours and hours even though they had been together for almost four years…and now he was gone…she needed to stop thinking about him. She needed to just…to just stop thinking about him. That part was over now. The past was in the past, she heard that in a movie once…that she and Teru had seen together.

"I'm happy for you, too. It was a lot of effort to come out here today…and every day. I know…I know how hard it can be. Not the having your heart broken part! I've never…been in a relationship like that before…but I know what it's like when you just…can't. So I'm just…I'm happy that you're…here." He said. Mob agreed, it was hard, but then she told him that it wasn't as hard for her as it was for him.

He was afraid of exploding and hurting someone.

She just had her heart torn out and shown to her.

He said that having your trust broken and being cast aside was worse than being afraid of yourself. You could learn to have control over yourself but you could never have control over another person and being cast aside by someone you loved and who you thought loved you was worse because you had no control over that. It shook your trust, he said, and it was hard to fix shaken up trust.

You just had to let it sit, like a soda can, and be careful not to open it up too soon or you'd be a sticky mess.

Master Reigen said that he was happy that she was back, too.

"See? I told you it would get better. We missed you, Mob. It just wasn't the same without you!" that was what he said the first time she walked through the door since Teru broke up with her. Then he pulled her into a sort of half hug. It was nice. He was nice. He was always nice to her.

Nice.

The same sort of nice.

Every cloud had a silver lining. That was a saying that she had heard. That wasn't true because otherwise they'd be kind of heavy. Also how would the silver get up there? Master Reigen taught her that saying when she was eleven. When she asked him how it worked, how the clouds didn't just drop to the ground, he patted her on the head and told her that she was adorable. He was nice like that, when she said the wrong thing, he was always nice like that. That was the thing, it was always the same sort of niceness.

She was an adult now.

The first thing she had done when she became an adult was go out and but Master Reigen a pack of cigarettes, the kind he liked.

"Mob, you didn't have to do this. Today's your birthday, not mine." He had said. She said that she didn't care, that she had been wanting to do this for him for a while. She had. She had still been with Teru so she wouldn't go through with the whole idea of it, the kind that ended with him kissing her and telling her that he had always liked her, but she did want to go through with the buying him cigarettes part.

It was just to be nice. He was always getting her dinner and stuff.

"Oh, I get it. Well come on, sit down. I guess that I have been a pretty bad influence on you after all." He said. He walked over to the office couch. She followed after a moment, anxious that maybe her daydream was coming true, but it wasn't. Instead of kissing her as she sat down he just handed her a cigarette. He took on for himself, lit it, and the pressed he end of his to hers. She had already out hers between her teeth like she had seen him do a million times before when he lit his cigarettes. She had expected him to click the lighter on again, not lean in close and press the ends of their cigarettes together.

But it had been nice.

"Don't make this a habit, Mob, because once you're hooked there's no getting unhooked. Trust me, I've been trying on and off for years, but I'd rather you have your first cigarette with me then out there." He said. He asked her if she liked it. She didn't lie, she told the truth. It was terrible. The worst. The smoke really burnt going down and made her cough.

He told her that it would pass.

But then he told her not to smoke anymore.

Then they went to get ramen for her birthday dinner. It was just the two of them, Serizawa was out visiting his mother that week. Teru was busy, too, so that was why he didn't come along even though they weren't broken up yet. Mom and dad had something planned for her on the weekend when they'd be less tired from their work weeks. Ritsu was off with Sho somewhere but she wouldn't have invited him anyway. He never liked Master Reigen.

She wanted it to be just the two of them.

Not that anything would happen. She was Teru's girlfriend then. She may have thought about other people sometimes, Sho was still funny and cute and warm, Tsubomi was probably still pretty even though she had moved away ages ago so Mob really had no idea, Tome was still confident and fun as far as Mob knew even though she had gone off to university already to study the paranormal, Master Reigen was still Master Reigen, and Serizawa still sometimes popped up in weird dreams and thoughts that she had, she couldn't help it that he was very nice and very tall, but she was not a cheater.

Now it would not be cheating.

That was the silver lining to Teru breaking up with her. She could be with Master Reigen now. She liked him since she was fourteen, a kid, but now she was eighteen, an adult. They were both adults and they could be together now. She had always imagined this. Him and her as adults….and now it was happening. She had always held out some crazy, insane, certifiable hope that he had been waiting for her for all these years. That the minute the clock struck twelve on her eighteenth birthday he would confess to her.

He hadn't.

Not that she had stayed up until midnight specifically waiting for a confession from him.

She got a 'happy birthday', though, so there was that.

Of course he wasn't waiting for her. She had a boyfriend, then, and he was not that sort of person. Now she didn't have a boyfriend and he was free to confess how he felt…but he was just the same as he had ever been. Everything was the same as it ever was except for the fact that she now had a gaping hole in her chest where her heart should have been.

Not really, though, because that would have been incompatible with life. That was medical talk for a mortal injury.

She had been mortally injured before and lived. That fight with Sho's dad had ended in her giving up her physical form for a time. Then there was the second time she gave up her physical form to get rid of the evil tree that she grew that made everyone forget her….that had been bad…and it had hurt just like this, too…when everyone forgot her. When Teru forgot her.

This was ten times worse.

It hurt even worse than what happened after the tree left. That tree had been made out of her energy, it had kept Mogami away, but without it he had taken a break from tormenting Asagiri to tormenting her…then she exploded worse than she ever had in her life and destroyed him….and a god chunk of the city…

Master Reigen had been the one to pull her out of that tornado.

He had climbed into that tornado and pulled her out of it. He said that no matter what happened he would always care about her. He told her that she had grown so much and that he was so proud of her. He said that he was sorry for all the times he had lied to her, the times he had put her in danger for his own gain, and the time he had forgotten her. He said that no matter what happened he would always be there for her, that he would always care for her, and that he would always be Master Reigen to her. He would always be Master Reigen and she would always be Mob and she would be ok. She was strong, strong enough to come out of that. Strong enough to come out of the explosion.

He helped her avert third impact.

Because that was what she had been trying to do.

She had been trying to destroy Mogami so completely that when she exploded, when she lost control, she decided to end it all and start again. Master Reigen stopped her from doing that. He pulled her out of that, even though he himself got very hurt, and he just held her for a while and told her how much he cared.

That was when she felt it for the first time.

Real love.

Not that she knew what she was feeling at the time, and not the sort of love that she had felt before. That was real. That he would do that for her without question…walk into certain death….again and again and again for her….that was love. Real love. The kind that she had previously felt only for Teru….

But Teru didn't have to break up with her. She had no plans of ever cheating on him with Master Reigen. None whatsoever.

But now it would not be cheating. Now they could be together. She liked him. She had liked him, loved him, for so long….and sometimes it felt like he loved her right back. The way he was with her…the way he was always so happy when she was near. The way his eyes would light up when he saw her, and she knew what that meant Teru looked at her the same way. Ritsu even looked at Sho like that. Sho just sort of always looked like that…but that was Sho. Master Reigen was always as happy to see her as Sho was to see Ritsu, and that was something.

He also touched her a lot.

Not in the way that he touched her in her dreams and daydreams. No, not like that at all. He was always ruffling her hair, though. He'd ruffle her hair and rest his arm on her shoulders…which he had always done but…it was different now. Hard to describe. He put his hand on the small of her back sometimes, too, when he passed near to her or he needed to steer her somewhere. Teru did that a lot, it was a boyfriend thing. Ritsu did that to Sho a lot, too. When he needed to steer Sho some place or just when they were standing super near to each other, presumably to kiss but Mob never stuck around for that part, so it was definitely a boyfriend thing.

He did a lot of boyfriend things with her, actually.

He got dinner with her a lot. The same places, though, that they had always gone too. They always sat at the table now, not the counter, which would have been better when she was eleven and her feet didn't reach the ground. It was nice, though, because it made talking to him easier. Also sometimes their feet hit each other under the table. That was nice, too, when that happened.

That was a boyfriend thing.

Sometimes when they were having dinner he's start to ramble a lot, he talked a lot but it was always with purpose, but when he lost that purpose and the rambling started….that was a boyfriend thing. Teru did that, too. Master Reigen also did the Teru thing where he would just sort of trail off and stare at her. He eyes would be soft and he'd just sort of look at her. Really look at her.

That was a boyfriend thing.

But he was not her boyfriend. As much as she liked him, and as often as it seemed like he liked her, things were pretty much just the same. He could have confessed to her but he didn't. She knew that she could confess to him but…but if she did and she had just been her usual clueless self and misread the atmosphere then it would be awkward between the two of them for the rest of their lives. Mob did not want to lose him, what she had with him, because then it would be like the time they went their separate ways but worse.

So she said nothing.

And he kept on being nice.

Not that she didn't like him being nice to her. It was nice that he was being nice. She liked it when people were nice to her. Like when Ritsu let her have the last piece of pork at dinner even though he was growing really fast and needed all the food he could get. Or when Sho sometimes, while she was asleep, left boxes of cereal and snacks on her desk because he tended to eat her stuff. That was nice of him. Or like how Serizawa always sat with her in the classes they shared together and helped her, well they helped each other, with their homework. Or like how he hung out with her outside of class and work, which was very nice, and they just talked about whatever they felt like.

It helped.

Having people who were nice to her helped. She didn't need Master Reigen to confess to her, she wanted him to but she didn't need him too, because it was enough that he was nice to her. He had been right. It hurt less and less each day, the space where her heart used to be. It still hurt but it became a dull sort of hurt. Some days she didn't even notice it at all. It helped that she had Master Reigen, and so many other people in her life, that were nice to her.

It got better.

A little bit at a time.

It helped that she wasn't alone, either. Being alone, all alone in her room, had made it worse.

"It always does. It's like you told me, all those years ago, people need other people." Serizawa had said. They were talking over bubble tea, sometimes they got bubble tea after class. He got his without the bubbles, which Mob could not begin to understand. The bubbles were the best part. If it were up to her the bubble tea would just be a drink cup full of bubbled. The tapioca balls, not actual bubbles, because that would have been weird.

He thought that they would be actual bubbles.

Not that Mob had laughed, not very much, because that would have been mean. He missed out on so much and while he was getting caught up he still hadn't done everything or tried everything that the world had to offer, including bubble tea, which was very sad. Not that she said that she felt sad for him, because he didn't much like that she had leaned, but she had gotten bubble tea with him. Not always, though. Sometimes they got regular tea, which was good, or coffee, which Mob had never liked…and it also made her kind of sad because Teru loved coffee….but that was before and she had to try and move forward. Something terrible had happened and she was sad, very sad, but she couldn't let her sadness consume her. She could not lock herself away from the world. Doing that would be the worst thing that she could possibly do. She had to get back up again. If Serizawa could do it then so could she. She had everyone, he had no one…well not anymore. But when he had left his room, and then left Claw, he had no one and it had been so brave of him to rejoin society when he so easily could have gone back to his room and just had his mother take care of him for the rest of his life. But he hadn't. He had been through so much more than she had and he had managed to come through it all.

So could she.

She had to.

She had to try and get better from this. She did, a little bit, just a little bit at a time. She tried not to think about Teru and how much it hurt, now, that they were broken up. Instead she thought about other things. Things that mattered, like the people in her life that she cared about and that cared about her in return. She also thought about things that didn't matter, things that just made for nice distractions, like manga and anime and videogames. Sometimes it was nice to have a distraction from everything that was going wrong in life.

"Games helped, they really did. When I played it felt like I was doing something with my life. I mean, obviously I wasn't but it felt like I was. Retro games were easier for that, forgetting I mean. They're more repetitive and the learning curve is lower so you can just get right into it." Said Serizawa. He liked retro games a lot. She liked them alright but RPGs and simulators were much more fun. Well those and anything to do with EVA. The passing years had only grown her love for the greatest franchise that had ever come out of Japan. She knew that she liked it too much, that she could harp on and on about it like broken record, so she tried not to talk about it too much. She was older now and knew more about social things like that. Conversations were like ping-pong and in ping-pong one did not hold onto the ball for dear life.

Even though she sort of wanted to.

Even though Serizawa kept on handing it to her.

"You've really never played either of the Impression games? Not even an emulator? I would have thought that you would have, being as big of a fan as you are…but then again they came out probably twenty years before you were born!" said Serizawa. He was nervous, there, which was normal for him. He was just a nervous sort of guy, it seemed, but it also seemed to get worse when it was just the two of them. That made sense. When Master Reigen was there he talked more and just took up more of the atmosphere. Plus, well, he could put anyone at ease. He was Master Reigen after all. But now it was just the two of them and they had to fill up the atmosphere together.

"I was born in 2005, Serizawa, so only about nine years before I was born. Well nine years for Impression One and Eight years for Impression Two. I'm not that young and you're not that old. I mean you're older than me but you're not that old." Said Mob. He smiled when she said that. He had worried about that, before, being so old. He wasn't even forty yet but he had said, before, that it felt like he had wasted half of his life. Mob didn't see it as a waste. He had spent a lot of his time locked in his room but he had played a lot of great games and that counted as something. Plus he had been all over the world and that was something even if he had been following Sho's dad around and hitting people with his umbrella when they got out of line.

"I don't look back at that time with any sort of fondness. Honestly I wish that I could delete those three years from my life and just start all over. I don't know. I mean I wish, now, that I had never met the President…that I had never met Suzuki…but if I had never met Suzuki then I never would have met you…or any of you. If I had never met him then I would have spent the rest of my life wasting away in the dark…" said Serizawa

"That part's over now, Serizawa, and I'm happy that you're here now. Sometimes bad things happen, I think, but there's good with the bad. I'm happy that I met you. I'm not happy about all the other things that happened on that day but I am happy that I met you." Said Mob. She meant it, too. She was happy to have another friend in her life. He was happy when she said that, so happy, the most happy that she had ever seen him. His aura was bright, so bright, and so very purple. He was happy and it was infectious. She was happy then, too. So happy that it chased away, for a little bit anyway, the low level sadness that had grown in the space where her heart used to be before Teru ripped it out.

Then he put his hand over hers.

And she let him.

She wasn't entirely sure of why he did that. For comfort, maybe. Holding hands didn't always have to mean something romantic. Besides, this was Serizawa. He was older than her, much older, and if Master Reigen couldn't look past the age thing then Serizawa wouldn't either. Besides, if he did like her then he would have said something. They were both adults. Adults confessed to other adults all the time. He probably didn't even see her as an adult, that was why he didn't even have those sorts of feelings for her to begin with.

She didn't have those kinds of feelings for him, too, at least she thought that she didn't…

They had never spent as much time alone together as they had been recently. They had never gotten to talking like they had recently. She had no idea that his favorite videogame was Bombe Man or that he liked EVA and didn't just talk to her about it to be polite or that he didn't like boba in his bubble tea or that he had just as much trouble with math as she did or that he also like futons better than beds or that he liked 2D games better than 3D games or…well a lot of things. She liked being with him and she liked talking to him.

But she didn't know if she liked him.

She knew that she liked Master Reigen. She knew that she liked all the stuff that they did together. Even if it was just hanging out together on a slow day at the office or running for their lives, not really, on a job she liked being with him. She liked being with Serizawa, too, but there was just something…different…about it. There was a low level sort of nervousness, butterflies in her stomach, that she felt when she was near Master Reigen. Every time he touched her it made her heart race and her lungs forget their job. She thought about him, dreamt about him, imagined him and her and what they could have had together. Not just the stuff that she and Teru had done but all the other stuff, too. A life together. A home. All of that stuff that adults built together when they loved each other. She couldn't imagine any of that with Serizawa.

Well most of that.

She did think about him sometimes. She couldn't help it. She had these stray sorts of thoughts about people sometimes. It wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when she was a kid but it still happened. Dreams, mostly, that left her tossing and turning and burning up in the night. She had gotten better about controlling her powers but sometimes she did wake up to her room shaking and her mind racing with thoughts that she'd rather not have about people that she knew that she should not have been thinking about. She couldn't help it. It was because he was so nice, she figured. She liked nice. He was tall, too, which she liked. Not that she could help but liking people who were taller than her, she was pretty short…

She maybe liked him.

Maybe.

She still didn't know and she didn't want to examine these feelings. She didn't want to examine them because if she did like him well then that would be a mess. She never wanted to be rejected again. She had a hole where her heart used to be. It was healing but it still felt like a hole. Raw and red and angry and ready to break open at any time. That was why she hadn't confessed to Master Reigen about being in actual love with him. He would say 'no' to her because of the age thing. He still called her 'kid' sometimes. He still thought of her as being just a kid. If she confessed to having feelings for Serizawa, not that she was sure if she did or not, then she could be rejected and that would be the worst. Then she would lose what she had with him.

She didn't want that.

She liked what she had with him. Friendship. The kind of friendship where they could just talk for hours about anything and everything. The kind where they understood each other better than most other people understood each other. He was just like her in some ways. He had powers that he couldn't always control and spent most of his life feeling like he was the only person like him the entire world. He had also put his trust in someone who said that they could help. She and Master Reigen had fought before, everyone fought with the people they loved at least once, but they made up. Master Reigen was nothing like Sho's dad. That was where she and Serizawa were different. He had put his trust in the wrong person and he still felt the pain of it.

"It feels like…kind of like a cut. Like a cut that just won't heal. Everytime I think it's closed it just opens up again. It's hard but…but it's something that I have to live with." He had told her one day. They were sitting outside at their school in a sort of nature area that had been built to make the place look more inviting. There were bushes and trees and flowers and stuff. Well Mob had grown the flowers, yellow ones, because she had felt the seeds and thought that they would look pretty. They were still blooming even though the weather was starting to turn again. Mob didn't know how they got to such a heavy topic, they just ended up on heavy topics sometimes, but she knew how he felt.

She told him so.

Then she offered him her hand.

He took it. After some stammering he took it. She had only been offering comfort, she told herself. That was all. She wasn't trying to see if she felt anything close to what she had felt for Teru. She didn't. She just felt his kind of cold fingers over hers. She hoped that he wasn't going to make something out of that. Sometimes she held hands with people to offer comfort to them and sometimes they did the same to her. But then again Ritsu was her little brother…and she had mostly stopped liking Sho a long time ago…and Master Reigen was…well…Master Reigen….

But Serizawa didn't like her like that.

Even if they spent every single free hour, during school hours, that they had together. Even though they did, sometimes, text late into the night…mostly about homework and videogames and EVA. Even though sometimes he got her lunch and sometimes she got him lunch. Even if they did talk about anything and everything…even if they did understand each other more so than most other people understood each other…even if they did do couple things together…like this…

Master Reigen did all of that stuff with her too, that didn't mean that they were a couple.

Also the age thing.

That was something that he probably would have had trouble ignoring.

"Um…do you like the Angelic Days manga?" he asked suddenly. They had both gone silent for a while. The only sound was the passing of the people around them as they went on with their daily lives. The crunching of shoes, the highs and lows of voices, the music that bled out of the headphones of the soon to be deaf, all of it blended in with the wind to make a very nice atmosphere.

Not that Mob had any problem breaking that atmosphere to talk about EVA.

"I like it. I like how they gave everyone a happy ending. I was nervous, actually, when I first saw it at the library because I didn't know how they were going to tell a good EVA story without the angels but then there were angels and I liked it a lot. I didn't like how they never explained Kaworu but they never explained him that well in the anime, either. Like they explained, sort of, how they explained how Rei existed but Kaworu just came out of nowhere and stuff. In universe, I mean, I know that out of universe he was an angel and stuff. I wish that there was more of him, and not just because of boy's love, and I don't think that he loved Shinji in a boy's love sort of way…." said Mob. She kind of went on and on and on again. She couldn't really help it. She really, really, really liked that manga series. It was a good series, not as good as the Shinji Ikari raising project series but it was still good. It had more slice of life stuff, which was always good. She stopped talking, though, when she realized that she had been holding the conversational ping pong ball in a death grip again.

"I'm sorry. I guess that I sort got carried away again." said Mob

"No, please, don't be. I like it when you…when you talk about things that you care about. You just sort of…light up…I guess." Said Serizawa. He let go of her hand then and just sort of looked off into the sky. He was getting kind of rosy, it seemed, probably because of the cold. She knew that she was rosy. She should have taken a scarf like mom told her to. Maybe they should have gone inside where there was heat. She was about to propose that they head over to their next class when the sky suddenly got very boring to him. He took a deep breath, Mob wasn't sure why, and then faced her again.

"I-I have the game that the manga is based on. I mean the manga is based on the part of that one episode but there's also a game based on that same part. I actually have a few EVA games and I just…I was wondering if you would ever want to come over and play them…with me." Said Serizawa. Mob could feel her aura lighting up. EVA games? EVA games that she had never played before?

Yes.

Of course.

"Ok. Let's go." Said Mob. Forget class. She could always miss one more day…but then again she was an adult and she had to be responsible and stuff…

He thought that they had to be responsible and stuff too. He said that he didn't mean right then because they had school and work and also his place was a mess. It was more of a standing offer, he said, and he just wanted to know if she would ever want to do that. Not that she had to do anything that she didn't want to, he said, which went without saying. Her life was her own and she didn't have to do things that she didn't want to do. She had to act in her own self-interests, of course, which was why she didn't skip class but she really, really, really, wanted to go over to his house and play games with him.

Videogames, she meant.

He was happy to hear that but also that flustered sort of happy he got sometimes. He asked her again if that was something that she wanted to do or something that she felt like she had to do. In asking her again and again she wondered if there was something there that she had missed. She wondered if there was something more to this besides playing videogames. But that was crazy. Playing games was what she and Teru had called all the stuff that they did in private as a couple but obviously this was different. Serizawa didn't and couldn't like her like that. He wasn't able to look past the age thing just like Master Reigen wasn't able to. Nobody in the whole wide world would be able to look past the age thing.

They said that age was just a number.

But they said a lot of things.

Age mattered. Age was why even though it seemed like Master Reigen liked her she knew that he could never like her. Age was why even though it seemed like she maybe liked Serizawa, or at least wanted to fill in the space where her heart used to be, he would never feel that way about her. Age mattered. She hated that age mattered, it seemed like a bitter crime that something as arbitrary as the year she was born could keep her from being happy, and she hated that nobody else could see it her way. Age was just a number. Age just meant that you were born in a certain year. She was young but she was not a child. She was an adult now, a grown woman, but Master Reigen just could not see that.

Even when she tried to make him see.

Even when she dressed nicer than her usual skirts and T-Shirts. Proper dresses that ended above her knee and dipped down below her collar bone. Even when she took her hair out of her braids and just let it hang down loose. Even when she put on perfume and makeup and shoes that felt more like stilts and wore stockings instead of the same Costco knee high socks that she had been wearing her whole life. Even if she dressed like a woman Master Reigen would never see her as one. He would always think that she was a kid.

And it sucked.

Since she was a kid, and always would be a kid, she had might as well play some videogames, she figured. That was why she asked Serizawa if his offer still stood. It had been a while since he had offered and since he made no mention of it again Mob wasn't sure if she should bring it up. But she just…she was just so frustrated. It was one of those work days when she had gotten dressed up. Her dress was from a proper store and fit her properly and she had on stockings instead of knee socks and her shoes pinched like nobody's business. Her face was painted and her hair was down and still Master Reigen would not even look at her like she was anything other than the eleven year old that came into his life all those years ago.

So she had might as well be that kid and just play some videogames.

And amazingly enough that was what had gotten Master Reigen's attention. He had been looking down at his phone but when she asked Serizawa if she could go home with him his head just snapped right up. He was looking at her. She could feel him looking at her. He had been looking away from her all day but now he was looking right at her. It was a good feeling, it really was, but she knew that he was not looking at her in the way that she wanted. He would never, ever, ever look at her in the way that she wanted. No matter how many years passed he would still never be able to look past the fourteen years that separated them.

So she had might as well play some videogames.

Serizawa said that the offer was still on the table. While Master Reigen's eyes were on her Serizawa's darted all over the room. He reached over and took his umbrella, the security object was good for keeping the anxiety down sometimes he had said, and told her that tonight was fine and that he would love to go home with her. To play videogames, he said, even though that went without saying. What else could they do? Well besides watch TV and stuff. She was glad to go with him, glad for the distraction from the frustration and the slowly healing hole where her heart used to be. She was excited, too, because EVA games!

Also she had never seen Serizawa's house, or rather apartment, before.

So that would be nice, too.

"Mob…you're going home with…Serizawa?" Master Reigen asked her and she pulled her coat on. Mob nodded. Of course they were going to his house.

"Yes Master Reigen. Serizawa offered, a while ago, to have me over to play videogames." Said Mob. She saw what looked like the full gambit of human emotion pass across Master Reigen's face. His eyes darted from her to Serizawa and then settled on Serizawa. Serizawa shuffled in place, his aura covered him like a blanket, and Mob wondered why. She was standing right there and Master Reigen just would not look at her. She felt it in the raw place where her heart used to be. He would never see her as anything other than a child…

So she had might as well play some videogames.

And that was what they had ended up doing. Serizawa lived in a one room. It was like one big bedroom. The walls were taken up entirely by shelves covered in plastic models, most of which he had painted and assembled himself, and also various games and consoles and manga volumes. She had walked through the room like it was a museum. He had been nice enough to explain some of the models to her, not that the EVA ones needed an explanation. They were all just so…cool. Mob had never gotten much into models. She tended to break things with her powers after all.

Serizawa said that he wouldn't mind it if she were to lose control and break something. There was nothing in that room that couldn't be fixed or replaced. Nothing except for her. He said that in a kind of low voice that she had never heard before. From him, anyway. Teru had spoken to her like that before, when they had been alone, but this was different. So what if she and Serizawa were all alone? Sixteen years separated them and there was no way that he would ever be able to look past them.

No way at all.

Besides, she didn't even know if she liked him like that. She knew that she liked how nice he was to her. She knew that she liked how close they were. If she was going to be thinking superficially she knew that she liked how tall he was. But that wasn't the same as liking him…in that way. There was a difference between being attracted to them and wanting to be with them. There was also a difference between liking someone, loving someone, and just wanting to kiss someone…or go to bed with them…

His bed could fit two people.

But she did not want to go to bed with him.

The only person that she had ever gone to bed with had been Teru and that had been…so long ago it seemed…and she didn't know if she could do that with anyone again. She didn't know if she could share herself with someone again knowing that they could leave her. She knew that if she ever did share herself with someone again it would have to be someone who she knew would never leave her…if she could ever be sure of such a thing. Teru said that he was going to love her until he was dead. Well he was still alive, still very much alive. Alive and living his life away from her and she was here and he was gone and she was all alone…

Stop it.

Play some videogames.

She let herself get absorbed in the game that they were playing. This was a slice of life novel type game. Lots of choices to make, lots of atmosphere to enjoy. Not an easy game to play with two people, he was mostly the backseat driver, but he said that he was happy to see her enjoying herself. They sat down on his floor and just sort of enjoyed the atmosphere. He had changed into comfortable clothes, pajamas like the ones he was wearing when he met her, and she was kind of jealous.

This dress may have looked nice but it was very uncomfortable.

It was hard to find a good way to sit without it being tight in some places and it riding up in others. She ended up doing a lot of fidgeting for a while before he asked her if she was alright. She was fine, of course, and she told him so. She was just kind of uncomfortable because she was still in her work clothes. He then offered her some of his clothes to wear since she was so uncomfortable.

Well he offered and then said, a bunch of times, that he didn't mean anything by it and that she could feel free to say no.

She didn't know why she would say no to something comfortable to wear. Maybe because he was so much bigger than her. He was so much bigger than her that she just ended up wearing his T-shirt like a dress. She did this around her house sometimes, just wore a giant T-shirt like a dress. She had been practically drowning in his pajama pants. His shirt fit her just like a night shirt and it was just as comfortable, too. Well she was about to walk out of the bathroom like that but then the thought that maybe asking would have been better. She was not at her house after all and even mom complained, sometimes, when Mob walked around in that state of less than dressed even though she had walked around like that for her whole entire life.

"S-sure, if you want to. Yes, make yourself at home!" said Serizawa. He still sounded kind of nervous there but then again he always sounded kind of nervous. He was much less nervous then when they mat but there was always this undercurrent of nervousness to him. She didn't pay it any mind, at first anyway. She was used to him stuttering sometimes but this was a lot more than normal. He was all red and stutter and she had no idea why but figured that it was something that had to do with her.

So she just asked him.

"It-It's not you I just…I mean it's nothing bad about you. I just…this is new for me." Said Serizawa

"Having someone over?" asked Mob

"I mean…this. I just…this is very new for me. I mean I think that I may…I invited you over to spend time with you, that's all. I don't think that anything is going happen! And I would never ask you to-" said Serizawa

"Something?" asked Mob. Maybe she was misreading the atmosphere….or maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was trying to make herself misread the atmosphere. She could tell…he spent a lot of time with her. He held her hand. But this was Serizawa. He was so much older than her…and didn't that bother him? It didn't bother her…not really. The only adult person she had ever liked was Master Reigen…but she was an adult now. They were both adults….

Did she like him back?

She had no idea.

"Nothing! I mean, I just…I like you. I like you a lot but I'm still figuring out if…if you like me…or if I actually like you or I'm just displacing feelings from…well….before…and you're so much younger than me-" said Serizawa

"I don't care about that." Said Mob. His aura glowed bright, then, as she said that. He ran a hand through his hair. The game was paused. Mob wished that she could pause life. That would have made this much easier. Serizawa liked her. Serizawa of all people liked her. He was…he was nice. He was always nice to her. He liked spending time with her and she liked spending time with him. He had changed for her, too, back then. Way back then all those years ago when they first met and the world was ending and she had to save it and he…he helped her save it. He betrayed the person he loved most in the world, and she had experienced something akin to instrumentality before in the Cultural Tower, and she had seen Sho's dad's memories of him and Serizawa…and those were memories that she had worked hard to lock away….he had loved Sho's dad but he had betrayed Sho's dad to save her…and Master Reigen.

She may have liked Serizawa just a little bit.

But she was in love with Master Reigen.

And that would not have been fair to Serizawa.

"I don't care that you're older than me…and I think that I might like you a little…but I don't think that a relationship would work out between us…and I'm very sorry about that. I didn't know that we were on a date and I didn't mean to make you think that-" said Mob because, well, she did not want to hurt him. He had been hurt enough already without having to add the pain of being in a relationship, or holding out hope to be in a relationship, with someone who did not have those kinds of feelings for you. It hurt, rejection, but it would hurt even more down the line if they did enter into a relationship while she was still so totally in love with Master Reigen.

"This wasn't a date! I mean, so-sorry. This wasn't a date. I really did just want to spend time with you. I just…I'm still figuring out some things. I like you…I think. I'm also incredibly grateful to you for saving me and that's…that's not a healthy way to look at it. I don't know, that's just what my therapist says. She said not to rush into anything with you until I was sure of my own feelings, let alone yours." Said Serizawa

"That's good advice I think. I guess I was trying to do that, too….try and figure out how I feel. I just…I wouldn't want to hurt you…because I know how much it hurts…" said Mob

"….me too…" said Serizawa quietly. Mob wished that she could pause life. She wished that she could rewind life. Serizawa of all people had just confessed to her…how were they supposed to be friends still?

"Do you...are we still friends? I mean, are things going to be weird now or-" said Mob

"No, not at all. I still…I like being your friend…Mob….I do…and I like hanging out with you, too." Said Serizawa. Mob liked that, the assurance that things would not be weird between the two of them. They weren't, they really weren't. They just unpaused the game and went right back to it. The hours rolled by until that game was beat…and then he had another one. The hours rolled by again and soon not only was the game beaten but the sun was also coming up.

She had been up all night.

And it had been fun.

It hadn't been awkward or weird or anything, which was good. It should have been awkward, him sort of confessing to her and her sort of confessing to him. But they were adults. They were adults and they could handle things like adults and talk like adults and work through things like adults.

And also go to work like adults, too. Which they had to.

Well nobody HAD to do anything but Mob liked work and Serizawa liked having his bills paid and they both liked spending time with Master Reigen so they got dressed, Mob back into the clothes that she had been wearing before, and they walked off to work together. Conversation came like a very smooth ping-pong game between the two of them. They had a lot to talk about, he really could keep up a conversation about EVA so long as it was EVA videogames, and the walk to work just flew by. In fact they didn't even stop talking when they came in together. They sat down and kept batting the conversation back and forth with more fluidity than they ever had before.

It was nice.

She thought that this whole thing had been nice. Even if she was exhausted it had been a nice time…and she was exhausted. Eventually conversation came to a close, they had work to do, and then Mob began to feel it. She had been up all night after all and even she needed her sleep. She couldn't believe that not only had she ignored the rising of the sun but she had also ignored the vibrating of her phone. Mom and dad asked when she was coming home and told her not to wake up the house when she came home.

Ritsu called her seven times and left her twenty five texts asking if she was ok. She told him that she was fine and that she and Serizawa had lost track of the time. Also that she was sorry for worrying him. Ritsu started a bunch of texts after that. The three typing dots by his name kept on appearing and then disappearing for almost ten minutes before he just said 'ok'. Mob hoped that he wouldn't try and protect her again. They were adults now, well she was anyway, and they were too old for him to be trying to protect her all the time like that. She could take care of herself and run her own life. She didn't mean to make him worry but even if she had…not that she wanted to…but if she had started up a relationship with Serizawa then that would be nobody's business but hers and his.

Not that she would ever say something as mean as 'mind your own business' to Ritsu ever again. That had been a mean thing to say to him all those years ago. Even if he did need to mind his own business and stay out of hers. Brothers were weird like that. They always wanted to keep you safe just because you were a girl and they thought that girls needed protection. Well Mob could take care of herself, and there was nothing to protect her from anyway.

She was not a child.

She thought that she wasn't a child anymore, anyway. Serizawa thought to too. Not Master Reigen, though, he would always see her as the child that she had been when they first met. He hardly even looked at her anymore…well that was before. He was looking at her now. He had spent the entire day looking at her. She could not read the expression that he had been looking at her with but it didn't matter.

He had been looking at her.

Looking eventually turned to talking. Serizawa had been dead on his feet all day, more so than Mob even probably because he was older, so Master Reigen said that he could go home early. Then it was just him and Mob. He lit a cigarette, smoked it, and then lit another. He was thinking really hard about something. Mob knew his tells for things like that. She had known him since she was eleven after all.

"So…you and Serizawa…" he said after he finished his second cigarette and started his third. There was something in his voice there something that she had never heard before. It sounded kind of…hurt…almost. But what did he have to be hurt about?

"Yes. We played videogames all night and forgot to go to sleep." Said Mob with a yawn. She was tired, very tired, but she didn't want to go home just yet. It wasn't that often that she and Master Reigen were alone together these days.

"Sure. Videogames." He said that with that same tone. Mob wondered what all of that was about. Did he have something against videogames or something?

"Yes. We played the Shinji Ikari Raising Simulator and Girlfriend of Steel 2 and-" said Mob

"Mob, you can be honest with me. I mean, I'm not naïve. Actually I'm happy for you two…mostly. I mean, I'm glad that you and him are in…whatever you two are calling it. Good for you, gotta get back up again and-" he said in a tone that made him sound anything but happy for her. Mob shook her head. There was nothing going on between her and Serizawa. Of course she was being honest with him, she had never once been anything but honest with him.

She loved him.

"Master, I have never not been honest with you. Serizawa and I played videogames all night, that's all. There is nothing happening between us that needs to be called something. I mean he sort of likes me but he's still figuring things out and I don't like him…that much….like that. So we're just friends." Said Mob

"That's…that's good. Jeez, I don't know what in the hell I was thinking. You're still such a kid, Mob. You and Serizawa….I must have been out of my mind. I mean, the age gap alone-" he said with a laugh. Mob felt her powers reaching out away from her. She was not a child. She was in no way shape or form a child anymore.

"I'm not a kid anymore, Master. I am not a child and I don't care about the age gap. I don't care about age. I'm an adult and so is he. We aren't going out together because I don't think that it would be a good idea. It has nothing to do with my age. I am not a little kid anymore and I wish that you could…see that." Said Mob. There was a silent, a pause, and she wondered if she had just batted the ping pong ball off the table and out the window. She was about to apologize for being so rude, lack of sleep would do that to a person, when he spoke first.

"You…you aren't a little kid anymore. You're right." He said. Then there was another pause.

"And I guess that maybe I just…want to see you like that, still." Another pause.

"Because otherwise I'll see you as an adult and that's…kind of hard for me…for reasons." Another pause.

"But those reasons…I mean if something doesn't bother you then it…it shouldn't bother me either." Another pause.

"Mob…listen…and feel free to say no but….do you want to…get a drink or something….with me." Another pause. This time Mob broke it.

"Of course, Master….but I've never drank before." Said Mob. That was…well he was seeing her an adult now. She had never had a drink in her life because she had spent her entire life as a kid. Now she was an adult and Master Reigen was finally seeing her as the adult that she was. It felt…good. It felt very good. The best. Nothing could possibly make this any better.

"It doesn't have to be drinks I just…Mob…would you go out with me?"

Well that would do it.


	9. Arataka Reigen

Mob had no idea if she and Master Reigen were a couple or not.

He asked her to go out with him, she said yes, and then they ended up having ramen at the same exact place they had been going to since she was a kid. The same order eaten at the same table in the same restaurant. There wasn't anything different, not really. Just her and Master Reigen having dinner together and talking. He didn't try to hold her hand or tell her he liked her or anything. They just sort of…ate. Ate and talked.

"So…the weather's been pretty nice lately, hasn't it?" he asked her through a mouth full of noodles. Mob nodded. Her eyes felt heavy. Her head felt heavy. She just sort of felt all slow and heavy. Staying up all night playing videogames would do that to a person. She was tired, that was why she initially thought that he was asking her out.

In the dating sort of way.

Because this did not feel like a date at all.

He didn't try to hold her hand. He didn't confess. He didn't try to kiss her. Nothing, he just talked. Well that was normal for Master Reigen, he was really good at talking, but he didn't really seem to be talking about anything.

"Low sodium soy sauce. How does that even work? I guess it's like decaffeinated coffee or sugar free sweetener. Food science sure can be weird, huh Mob?" he was talking fast, even for him. He was talking so fast that she could barely follow him. He went from the weather to condiments to food science to the fluffy dog tied to a lamppost outside to the crowning of the new emperor to, well, she wasn't even sure what he was talking about.

"Because, really, a flat tax will always favor the rich. Never vote against your best interests Mob, never vote against your best interests. Seeing as how you're finally old enough to vote. Who do you plan on voting for, anyway? Not that it's any of my business. I just never knew…well there's a lot I don't know about you I guess. I don't never, I just never pictured you with political views…I never pictured a lot of things about you…" he said. The he stuck his chopsticks in his bowl and made this weird, kind of loud, scarping sound. They were done eating and had been done eating for a while.

"I don't really know about politics, Master Reigen, and the next election isn't for a while…and I don't even know if I'll vote…I mean I should because I'm an adult now." Said Mob with a yawn. She was holding her head up with her powers now. Her eyes kept on trying to shut on their own accord. A full stomach didn't much help matters, it seemed. Maybe people were just not designed to be awake for more than twenty four hours.

"You're an adult now…I man of course you are! I wouldn't, I mean we wouldn't, if you weren't." he said that quickly, very quickly. Mob nodded even though she didn't get it. Did that mean that this was, in fact, a date? She was too tired to figure this out.

Boys never told you.

Boys always tried to show you that they liked you but they never told you. Girls told you that they liked you, and it was easier to tell girls that you liked them. Mob was bad at reading people but girls were easier in some ways than boys. That was why she had known, all those years ago, that Tsubomi would reject her. She still asked, though, because she had liked Tsubomi and she was moving away. It had gone well, Tsubomi liked girls but didn't like Mob like that, and they parted on good terms. There. It had been nice and simple. Mob hadn't even been trying to date Tsubomi, even though Teru seemed weirdly on board with that, she just wanted…closure on that, it seemed. Girls were just easier for that sort of thing. She and Tome, Teru had been VERY on board or her to get back together with Tome…when she and Teru were together…and she did not understand what that had been about one bit…but Tome said that as much as she cared for Mob, and that she had no problem with the sort of relationship that Teru was super ok with having…Mob didn't get it…they were just going in different directions in life and stuff. Tome was going off to study the paranormal at university, she was going to be a paranormal investigator, and Mob still had a year of high school left and had no intention of leaving Seasoning City anytime soon.

It had been easy. Just talking.

No signs, no signals, none of the thousand one tiny little things that boys did to show you that they liked you or didn't like you or whatever. She just came out and said it. Girls just came out and said it and Mob was a girl but she felt like she couldn't just come out and ask Master Reigen…for a lot of reasons. Not just because he was a boy, well man, and things were different but also because he was Master Reigen. She had wanted to be with him for so long, since she was fourteen or maybe even before that, that she feared that she may have just been reading more into…whatever it was that they had together.

He asked her out.

But they didn't do any date things.

Maybe he was just figuring it out like Serizawa was. She liked…Serizawa was nice. He was sweet, even, and he understood her on a level that even Master Reigen couldn't. The being scared of yourself level. The being a vessel for a terrible power level. The hurting someone you loved on accident level. Serizawa understood her on that level and he was always very nice and he had great taste in videogames…and also he was very tall….and she liked him.

But she liked Master Reigen a lot more.

And she could not hurt Serizawa like that. She could not start a relationship with him while she liked someone else. That was not at all fair to him. She would end up hurting him in the end. She would end up making him feel like there was a gaping wound in his chest where his heart used to be. She would send him hiding in his room forever because she had hurt him, broken his heart. Nothing breaks like a heart. It was the worst sort of break, the hardest sort of break to heal, and she did not want him to feel like that ever. Him or anyone. If she could just remove all of the heartbreak from the world she could. But she couldn't because as powerful as she was she could not initiate third impact and turn the world to LCL so that people could finally understand each other.

She could just be a good person. That was all.

All she could really do in this world was try and be a good person. That was why she was not going to try and be in a relationship with Serizawa. That would not be fair to him and he was still figuring out how he felt anyway. If he were sure then they would have done some actual date stuff. Stuff beyond hand holding, anyway. She reddened at the thought. They had been at his house, his apartment, and they were alone. All alone. She was older, now, and she could be alone with a boy. Or rather alone with a man. When she had been younger and just started…all of the couple stuff….mom and dad hadn't let her be alone with Teru. They always sent Ritsu, and Sho by extension, with her when she and Teru went on dates. They had always made her keep her door opened, too. Well they slowed down with that when she was about seventeen and now they let her stay out all night like it was nothing…

It had been nothing.

Well nothing had happened.

Nothing like that anyway.

She wasn't sure what she would have done, even, if he had asked her to do…stuff like that. The only person she had ever been with was Teru and that was…those had been some of the most beautiful, fun, amazing, everything times in her life. She liked stuff like that…or maybe just with Teru. He knew her and she knew him and they knew what each other liked and they loved and trusted each other…back then. Now there was just this gaping wound in her chest that opened up whenever she remembered those times between the two of them.

She would have said no if Serizawa had asked.

Well it depended on what he was asking of her. She would have…if he wanted to kiss her she would have. Just to see what it would be like, to see if she, if they both, got that fireworks feeling. The thought of never kissing anyone again…it hurt. She…she didn't like this feeling. This awful heartbroken feeling that just would not quit no matter how much time passed. She didn't want to be cut off from that part of her life for the rest of eternity, which was how long she suspected that this feeling would go on for. She liked stuff like that, bed stuff, and maybe she wasn't ready to do all of it again…but just knowing that someone wanted that with her…knowing that…that her entire physical and romantic existence was not over…that was a good feeling.

Not that they had done anything more than hold hands.

No matter what people thought. People being Ritsu, mostly.

"Sister! You're home…" Ritsu knocked on her door before he opened it. He was better at that these days. They both were, actually. She had seen enough in the times when she forgot to knock, mostly him and Sho kissing, that she knew that she did not want to see anything more. She didn't even like seeing that. Neither did her. Her and Teru, not her and Sho, because there could not be a her and Sho and she didn't even want there to be a her and Sho anymore. That was before, when she was a kid, she was an adult now and she did not have weird feelings for her little brother's boyfriend. Ritsu and Sho loved each other, which was a beautiful thing, and she did not want to get in the middle of that. Neither did Ritsu, when he finally accepted that Teru loved her and was not trying to just sleep with her like he had thought.

Ritsu had just been looking out for her.

But she didn't need him looking out for her. Not then and not now.

"Hi Ritsu. I'm sorry that I didn't answer your calls last night. Me and Serizawa lost track of the time, that's all." Said Mob. She hadn't meant anything by that but judging by Ritsu's face, he was making his Ritsu face, she had either said something wrong or he was reading into something. But what? She had just said that she and Serizawa had lost track of the time last night…oh.

"We didn't do anything like that, if that's what you're worried about." Said Mob because he did worry about that a lot. People taking advantage of her because she was so nice, he said. He didn't want her to ever end up heartbroken, he had said, even though even with all of his protection he still could not protect her from that.

"I-I…you can do whatever you want! I just…got worried." Said Ritsu. He was looking everywhere but at her now. Mob didn't get was he was so nervous about. Well aside from the fact that she had brought up…those sorts of things…with her little brother. Well he had brought it up first by being worried about her.

"You don't have to worry about me, Ritsu. I don't like it when you do, actually. Let me worry about you. You're the little brother, not the big brother." Said Mob

"I never give you any reason to worry." Said Ritsu

"That's true but I still do sometimes, I guess because I love you. But you don't have to worry about me at all. You've been worried about me since we were kids but we aren't kids anymore, Ritsu. Well I think that you might still be a kid because you're only seventeen but you're also a lot taller than me and stuff so I don't know. It's weird, the eighteen is an adult. It's just a weird number to start measuring at, I think." Said Mob. It never felt like a lot of time separated her and Ritsu, before. They were always almost the same age. One and two, four and five, eleven and ten, thirteen and fourteen, but seventeen and eighteen was different. She was an adult while he was still a kid. Even though he was really tall, now, not that he hadn't been a little taller than her for a while. He just did a whole bunch of growing at once and now he was taller and stronger, too, and he just went and grew up and so did she…but there was still that year that separated them.

She was an adult now and she didn't need her little brother watching over her. She should have been the one watching over him.

"Yeah it's weird…you being an adult and all. Ok, I know you hate it when I look after you and I'm sorry but I was just worried. I mean, you were gone all night…and I didn't know that you were with Serizawa. I mean I know him and I know he's a good guy but…Serizawa?" asked Ritsu

"Yes. Serizawa and I stayed up all night playing videogames." Said Mob. Ritsu closed his eyes and shook his head. Mob didn't much get it. What did she say? She already said that they didn't do anything, not that it was the sort of thing that she would ever want to discuss with her little brother, and she never lied so really Ritsu ought to believe her.

"I know, you said so already…I just….so he's your boyfriend now?" asked Ritsu quietly. Mob shook her head.

"No, we decided not to be a couple. He's still figuring out how he feels about me. I says that he likes me but it might just be him thinking of me how he thought about Sho's dad and I like him but…but there's someone else I like and it would not be fair to me or him to be in a relationship with him while I like someone else. So we're not a couple, we're just friends." Said Mob even though this was something else that she did not really want to be discussing with her little brother…or something that she much wanted to think about herself. She hadn't…rejected Serizawa….they had come to a mutual understanding. Besides, she was Master Reigen's…something now….right?

Too much to think about on too little sleep.

"Alright, I'm sorry to be all…yeah….I was just worried and kind of…I mean, Serizawa? He's so…he's twice our age." Said Ritsu

"I don't care about that, it doesn't matter. I'm an adult now, not a kid, and he's an adult so we could be together if we wanted to…but we don't. I mean…it's complicated. It's very complicated and I'm very tired." Said Mob. Ritsu looked at her for a while. He looked like he was going to say something but he just could not settle on what. Mob loved her little brother, she loved him as much as a person could love their little brother without getting into weird late night anime territory, but she needed sleep to live.

"I'm ok Ritsu, I'm just sleepy. We played videogames all night, it was fun, but we're not a couple. I'm fine, everything's fine, but I'm very tired." Said Mob. She wanted to collapse onto her futon and not come back up for at least eight hours but she and Ritsu were talking now and it would have been rude to just lay down and go to sleep. At least she thought that they were still talking. He looked like he wanted to say something. Maybe he was just lonely since Sho wasn't around yet. He mostly hung out with Sho these days, and not just because she spent all of that time in her room before. That was just the way it went, Mob guessed. You got older and you spent less time with your little brother.

But your little brother still worried about you.

And you still worried about your little brother.

The nagging sort of worry that existed at the back of your mind. Mob didn't have any real specific worries about Ritsu. He got good grades and would go to a good university and nobody had tried to pick a fight with them or take over the world in years and also Ritsu had someone who he loved more than anything else in the world and who loved him back just as much. Mob could tell. Ritsu and Sho never fought in any serious way, always spent time together even though they were older now and had a lot going on. Ritsu had school stuff and Sho was cleaning up his dad's messes, he said, but not literally. He sometimes went away for long stretches of time with this guy, Joseph, to catch bad guys and guys that used to work for Sho's dad. Those were times when she worried. She worried for Sho's wellbeing and she worried for Ritsu's heart.

Because nothing hurt more than losing the person you loved most.

But Sho always came back, so that was good. He even came back with souvenirs for her, which he didn't have to but he said that he wanted to, the latest of which was a T-Shirt from America with a bunch of cats on it from a shelter that Sho visited. Not for the mission, or any mission, Sho just liked animals a lot. Before that it was some weird candy from the Netherlands that tasted so strongly like cinnamon that Mob had to dissolve them in milk to be able to consume them without her entire mouth burning, European people were strange, but she was still grateful. Grateful for the gifts and grateful that he had come back. She would have been sad if he never came back but Ritsu would have had hid heart ripped out.

They really did love each other, Ritsu and Sho, and Sho would always come back for Ritsu, and Ritsu would always be there for Sho to come back to.

Not that Mob was jealous or anything. She wasn't. She didn't like Sho like that anymore, first of all, and second of all so what if the person that she thought she was going to spend the rest of her life with had left her one day out of the blue…she was fine. She had been sad before but now it was time to be…less sad. To leave her room and rejoin society before she dropped out of it completely. She was not at all jealous of her little brother just because he had found the love of his life already and would be happy with Sho forever…and she would be all alone.

Or not.

She had no idea what she and Master Reigen were doing, exactly. She knew that she liked him…and he had asked her out like he liked her, but then he didn't do any of the things that boys did when they wanted you to be their girlfriend. Serizawa did more of those kinds of things, he at least held her hand, but she was not Serizawa's girlfriend.

She wanted to be Master Reigen's.

And she had no idea if she was or if he even liked her like that. They had gone out to dinner but that had been normal, so normal, that it seemed like nothing between them had changed. Maybe nothing had. Maybe she had just misheard or something. That couldn't have been a date. There was no way that he would have…he could not like her like that. He was Master Reigen. She was Mob. No matter how many years passed she would just be Mob and he would always be Master Reigen and there was no way that he saw her as anything other than the kid she had been for the past eighteen years of her life.

There was no way.

The next time she saw him she was much more awake and much more convinced that she had been making something out of nothing. He was asking her out to have dinner like they had night after night for the past seven years. That was all. He wasn't asking her OUT or anything like that. If he had he would have said something. He didn't. Well he said words but not the sorts of words that Mob would have wanted to, liked to, hear.

"Hey Mob, how was school?" that was what he asked her. He sat right there at his desk and he asked her how school was. He had been asking her every single work day, except for summer work days, how school had been. That was it? Nothing else? No explanation as to what, exactly, the other night had been about. Nothing.

He sat at his desk. He didn't even look up from his computer. They only thing that could be heard after he said that was the clanking of his keyboard as he struck the keys with more force than Mob thought was necessary. She stood in the doorway for a moment and just looked at him. Maybe he needed time to think of something else to say. Something like 'by the way Mob I like you' or 'hey Mob we were on a date the other night, thought you ought to know.' Just...something. Anything.

But he didn't.

"Hi Master Reigen, school was fine. How was…here?" asked Mob before she sat down at her desk. He said that he was fine. Then they started the day. It was a normal day. The same way the days had gone before and would go afterwards. He didn't treat her any differently than he had been treating her for the past seven years.

Serizawa on the other hand.

"Mob! Hi….I mean I saw you before, I've been seeing you all day, but hi. Do you…do you want some tea?" asked Serizawa. He was nervous, more nervous than she had seen him in years, and he asked if she wanted tea instead of just making it. Usually he just made it and everyone got their own cup. But he poured her a cup and handed it to her, not put it on her desk.

That at least got Master Reigen looking in her direction. He didn't say anything, he just looked between the two of them. Her, Serizawa, then her again.

She met eyes with Master Reigen. No matter how old she was, how many years passed, she could not understand the looks she got sometimes. She didn't have one, though, not at all. At least she wasn't consciously giving him any looks. Still, looks passed between all of them. It was like a silent conversation that Mob had no idea how to be a part of. Eventually she just, well she felt like she just, stopped being a part of whatever it was that was happening. Serizawa and Master Reigen just sort of looked at each other. Then as quick as it all started it ended and the day went on as usual.

And Master Reigen asked her to have dinner with him again.

Just her.

She didn't get it.

They went to the same ramen place they always went to and ate the same ramen that they always ate and everything was just the same as it always had been. He was on one side of the table, he was at the other. He kept his hands on his side of the table, she kept her hands on hers. He talked, she listened, and chimed in occasionally too. Just a normal night after work. Him and her. Together. Like they always had been.

"So…you look better now. No more all-nighters?" he asked her through a mouthful of noodles. She knew that it should have been gross when he did that, talk with his mouth full, but it wasn't. It was very….him…if that was a sufficient way to describe all the things that came together to make up Master Reigen. All the things she loved about him. The way he moved and talked and just…was…in the world.

"No. I've been sleeping like normal. Me and Serizawa haven't really hung out since that night, before." Said Mob

"Oh. Any reason in particular? Not that it's any of my business or anything who you hang out with or when or why. I mean, why would it be? It's not like…even if it was like…I mean I wouldn't ever…jeez it's hot in here. Are you hot? I'm hot" Said Master Reigen. He pulled at his shirt and fanned himself. Mob wasn't hot but maybe that was because she was wearing fewer layers than he was. He had on his suit coat, his button down shirt, and then underneath that she could see the white undershirt he had on underneath. He had loosened his tie and his top buttons had been undone all day. She knew that she was supposed to think that he looked sloppy, and she was supposed to mind it, but she didn't. That was just another thing that made him, well, him.

She loved it.

"No real reason, I've just been busy with stuff and he hasn't invited me over either, so that's all. We're still friends, though, even though we sort of went out. Here, have something to drink." Said Mob as she pushed his tea over to him with her powers. He took it and drank it down quickly, so quickly that Mob worried that he would choke, but he didn't. He did pour himself another cup of tea, though, and then just sort of swirled it around while he stared at it. She stared down at her drink too. Milk. Cold. She swirled it with her powers.

"So…Mob. About the other night-" said Master Reigen. Mob sat up. Her glass of milk tipped over but she caught it with her powers and stopped it from making a mess. They were going to talk about what happened. Finally. Maybe he even…she tried not to get her hopes up. She tried not to think too much into the whole 'Master Reigen asking her out' thing even though she sort of…she more than sort of wanted to.

"I don't want you to feel obligated to do…anything. Alright? There is zero obligation on your part or my part or any part…not that I can think of who else would get a part in all of this…." he said. Mob blinked. Obligation. She knew the word. That meant something that you had to do. Like how she was obligated to keep going to school even though she was an adult, mom said so, or like how she was obligated to put the cap back on the shampoo because they were living in a household, mom and also so. She didn't feel that, though, ever when she was with Master Reigen. Obligation. Things she had to do. Rules she had to follow.

"I don't understand." Said Mob because, well, she didn't. Not one bit. She hoped that maybe he would explain but then he just sort of did that thing the people did where they said 'um' and 'uh' a lot. Placeholder noises. He was trying to think. He taught her that.

"You and me…I mean you and I…we just…whatever it is that we're doing right now." Said Master Reigen not answering any of her questions at all. Not that she had vocalized any of her questions. Questions like 'do you like me back' and 'are we a couple' and 'am I just misreading the atmosphere again' and such. Well of course he didn't answer any of her questions, she hadn't asked them, so of course he would have no idea that she even had any questions that needed answering.

So that part was on her.

She just wished that it wasn't.

"You know…right?" asked Master Reigen while she was sitting there trying to figure out how to ask him if they were anything beyond what they had been for the past seven years. She knew that if she asked and they were a couple, the thought makes her heart beat faster than it ever has before, then that would just be her being awkward as usual. She had been in a couple before, years ago back when she was in middle school, and it was awkward. She was too old to be awkward like that.

"I mean that just because…you don't have to do something just because I asked you to. I mean if you don't want to be here right now then I totally understand." Said Master Reigen. That was weird. He never asked her if she…well he always asked if she wanted to come and get dinner with him after work but he never asked like that…or this late into actually having dinner with her…there was something that she was not understanding. She could tell.

"Eating dinner?" asked Mob. There weren't doing anything at all out of the ordinary. They were eating dinner and talking just like they had been doing together for the past seven years. Nothing strange about any of it. So why did it feel so out of the ordinary? What was she missing? This was like only having half of a map and having to guess the other half. She wished that it wasn't. She wished that she could be one of those people, those lucky people, who were good at talking. Who always had a clue. Who never misread the atmosphere.

"Yes! Eating dinner! That's exactly what we're doing. I asked you to get dinner with me and you are…and you want to be? Right?" asked Master Reigen

"I don't understand. Of course I want to be here with you, that's why I'm here." Said Mob slowly. She tested out each word before she said it. She checked every word for another meaning as best as she could. She didn't want to say anything wrong. She was still the student at this and he was the master.

"Right! I just didn't want you to feel…obligated." Said Master Reigen

"I don't, Master Reigen. I like being here…with you. I always like being with you. Well not that time before when I was a kid and we had that fight but we're past that now and I like the time that we spend together. I don't feel obligated to be here at all, I know that I can go home whenever I want to, I just don't want to." Said Mob trying her best to sound as direct, not that she wasn't always direct, as possible.

"Wow that…ok. Sure. We're doing this. I mean…I just didn't want you to feel like you had to do anything that you didn't want to just because I'm…the person that I've been to you all these years." Said Master Reigen. He looked away from her when he said that. More stuff that she just did not understand.

"Master Reigen? You've been you. Who else could you be?" asked Mob

"I'm…you can call me Reigen, now, Mob. Just Reigen. I mean…we're doing…this…and I can't be Master Reigen to you. I mean...we're both…." Said Reigen. He made a motion like he was trying to pull words out of the air.

"Adults?" asked Mob. That was something different, something new between them, something that it was hard to put words to. It was like…he was still Master Reigen and she was still Mob but they were more…equal. Equal enough to have that drink that Master Reigen asked her to have with him…or not because she had never had a drink, an alcoholic drink, in her life. Still…he had offered.

Just drink or…more?

She did not know.

"Yeah! You're an adult and I'm an adult and we're…being adults about this. This…thing that we're doing…right now. You and me being…what we are now." Said Master Reigen. He looked as lost for words as she was there…which was new. He always knew. He always knew just what to say and when to say it but now…now he was lost.

This was new.

They were equals now.

It felt…nice. Being his equal, at least in that moment. Him being none the wiser than her. Him drumming his fingers and shaking his leg and looking all around. Usually he sat back. Usually he was…she knew that he tended to put on a show. She liked the show, she liked it when he became the Great Reigen Arataka, Greatest Psychic of the Twenty First Century…but she also liked it when he became Master Reigen…or just Reigen.

She was just Mob and he was just Reigen and they were just…something. Something could mean…a thing. A couple thing.

"We're something?" asked Mob. As soon as the thought hit her the table jumped. Something meant…well it meant that they were talking about what they were…and what happened…and that was good. Something was good…right? She wanted to be 'something' with Master Reigen and had wanted that for years and years…and now she was finally getting…something.

"I….I want…I want whatever you want. I don't want you to feel obligated to do…anything." Said Master Reigen. Mob still did not understand…and was getting tired of not understanding. She wanted to understand what was happening between the two of them. She didn't even understand him right then. He was unguarded, which was nice, but she didn't have much experience with this unguarded Master Reigen. No. This unguarded 'just Reigen'. Maybe she should just…ask him.

They were both adults here. She should just be able to ask him.

"I don't feel obligated to do anything, Mast-Reigen. Just Reigen. I don't feel obligated to do anything and I want us to be…something. I mean…." Said Mob. Master Reigen took in a deep breath, a very sudden sort of gasp, the kind that made her wonder if he was ok because he did smoke all the time and that was not good for him. But he was ok. In the sense that he could breathe he was ok.

But he couldn't talk.

Mob knew that she had said the wrong thing and she apologized. Then he told her not to apologize. Then she apologized again for saying the wrong thing.

"I'm sorry, I really am. I didn't mean to think that you wanted us to…to be…something" said Mob

"No, don't apologize. I thought that I made myself clear that I wanted us to be…something. I mean we don't have to put a label on it but I do…and I figured that…I just saw you with Serizawa after you spent the night with-" said Master Reigen.

"We played videogames." Said Mob. He had a tone there when he said 'spent the night' and she knew what it meant when someone said that they spent the night with someone. It was like saying that someone slept with someone else. It didn't mean literally. She didn't want Master Reigen to think that she had…well she had before but she didn't want him to think that she had…in this instance.

"I know, I believe you. You're no liar, Mob, believe me I know liars…." Said Master Reigen

"You aren't a liar anymore." Said Mob with a slight tone. She did not want to think about that day. The day that they had their fight. He had lied to her but she forgave him and it was all over and done with. She wanted to tell him that it was all over but he just went on with it.

"I was…for years and years…and I'm sorry. Just…before we start…whatever you want to call this I want you to know that I'm sorry." Said Master Reigen

"I know. You said sorry for all of that years ago. Remember? I forgave you. It's all done with now. You said sorry and I forgave you and we made up." Said Mob

"I remember that day, Mob….and I remember what you said…" said Master Reigen

"I remember too. I said that I knew what you were from the beginning….a good person. I said that and I meant it. You're a good person and I don't care that you lied to me before. I don't know why it still bothers you, it was years ago." Said Mob

"It bothers me because…I don't even know. Just the fact that I lied to you and I didn't have a problem with it for years, I guess. I just…I don't want there to be anything like that between us. Anything…bad, I guess would be the word. I want us to start this off, whatever you want to call this, on a good note…and I can't even believe that we're starting this thing…" said Master Reigen

"What are we starting? I don't understand Master, I mean Reigen. I don't understand what we're starting. I mean I know you asked me to go out with you but I don't know…what you meant by that…" said Mob. He shook his head.

"Whatever you want, Mob. This can be…this can be something or it can be nothing. Balls in your court, Mob. If you want this to be something then it can be, we can be, something. If you just want things to stay the way they've always been then we can never speak of this again. I just thought that you…you have the right to feel however you want to feel." Said Master Reigen. That really was not fair, though, because now she had to be the one to decide…and she didn't know what he wanted her to decide. What did he want them to be? She did not understand and she was getting so tired of not understanding. It would be awkward but she should just ask him. This was no place at all for miscommunication.

"What do you want?" asked Mob

"What?" asked Reigen

"What do you want? You keep on saying that this is whatever I want it to be but you're here too. I want to know what you want…because I don't know if you want what I want. I mean you asked me out but this is…the same thing we've been doing for years and years." Said Mob

"I want…what do you want?" asked Master Reigen. Mob took a deep breath. Did he want her to confess? Right now? Actually as awkward as it was it was also much easier than going around and around trying to figure out what he wanted. Directness was good, very good.

"I want us to be…I mean I want to…I want us to be going out but…for real. I mean, I want you to be my…I want to be your…" said Mob. Ok, it was easier said than, well, said. She could not confess to him. She had practiced with him years and years ago but she had been a kid, then, and it had not been for real. This would be for real. If she confessed then he would know how she felt…how she had been feeling for years and years now.

"Mob…tell me what you want." Said Master Reigen

"I want us to be a couple…" said Mob softly. She could not look at him. She looked down at what was left of her ramen. How many times had they sat down at this table? How many times had she eaten ramen here? Out of this bowl, even? How normal was all of this? But it was not normal. She felt like she was at the edge of something, the very edge. She was teetering at the very edge and she could have so easily tipped off…and she wanted to. She wanted to step off of that edge with him. She wanted, had wanted, to step off of the edge with him for so long…and there he was. He was there and she was there and they were at their usual ramen place but this entire situation was anything but. Nothing about what was happening now was usual or normal or anything like that. This was a decidedly abnormal situation, and awkward one even, because for once in his life he made no move to speak. None. Nothing at all.

He was silent.

Mob worried that she had messed up, messed everything up, messed everything up between the two of them so irreparably that there was no coming back. They had fallen off the edge and there was no way to climb back up. This was it. This was them. She had messed up and now everything would be awkward between them for all of eternity and-

He put his hand over hers.

A simple gesture. All he did was reach across the table and put his hand over hers. A simple gesture that she had seen done, and had done to her, a thousand times before. How many times had her hand been held in her lifetime? Was there someone keeping track? She sure hadn't been. Did it even matter? She had no idea. It felt like it mattered. In all her years of having her hand held…she had never felt….well she had felt this before but never from Master Reigen.

It was nice.

It was perfect.

It was wonderful.

There was nothing in the entire world that could make that moment more wonderful than it already was. Him and her, there, together. His hand over hers. This was…she may have been reading too much into it. She needed to believe that this was happening but there was still that part of herself that told her that she was reading too much into this whole thing. That he may have been Reigen to her now and she may have still been Mob to him but they were still there at that same ramen place eating the same ramen at the same seats out of the same bowls and-

"I want that too."

Mob couldn't speak. She couldn't think. She couldn't even breathe. This was everything that she had ever wanted, it felt like. He wanted to be with her. He liked her. Master Reigen, no, just Reigen, liked her. Her. Mob. Shigeko. HE LIKED HER.

She floated the entire way home.

She floated in through the front door and up the stairs to her room. She floated down onto her futon and just…stared. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to wrap her mind around what had just transpired. Master Reigen liked her. He liked her and she liked him and now they were a couple and it was the greatest thing ever! Even if nothing changed, or everything changed, or some things changed and some things stayed the same, she was still happy. He liked her. This was what she had been wanting for so long and now…this was the happiest…near happiest, one of the top ten happiest nights of her life.

She couldn't ever remembering being this happy though…

She just wished that everyone else could share in her happiness.

The first person she told, well the first person to find out was Serizawa. She and Master Reigen were a couple now and that meant that she had to start calling him just Reigen because, as he said, it was just plain weird for her to be calling him Master while they were doing whatever it was that they were doing. He said that even though he had been perfectly clear that he wanted to be in this couple with her. He was her…boyfriend…and she was his…girlfriend. He did not much care for those titles, it seemed, because when she said that she was happy to be his girlfriend, the day after they became a couple, he almost choked while he was smoking.

She maybe should have waited for him to finish smoking before she said anything.

Because when she said that, when she came into work and said that, the he started coughing a lot and almost fell out of his chair. He said, later on, that he wasn't mad or anything, just shocked, because it hadn't fully sunk in for him that they were doing whatever it was that they were doing. Mob didn't get what needed to sink in. They were a couple, now, and that was it. She liked him and he liked her and they'd do couple stuff…eventually….because this relationship was still very new and they hadn't even kissed yet.

She wanted to kiss him.

But she didn't, not then anyway. He was choking and almost tipped over but she caught him and he stopped couching so he was fine. Everything was fine. Well almost everything. Serizawa had come in while this was happening and was a little, or a lot depending on your standards, freaked out. He also heard her calling Master Reigen by his family name only. She wondered if she could call him Arataka. She doesn't much want to, Reigen is enough of a transition as it is, and she's never in her life ever heard anyone address him by his given name.

Well not before that day.

Because when she called him Reigen Serizawa got this look, then Master Reigen go this look, and then they just sort of had those looks for the rest of the day. Serizawa didn't talk much to her that day and neither did Master Reigen. Honestly they reminded Mob of cats. It was like when two cats met and got all hissy and flattened their ears and stuck their tails in the air. Mob had no idea why, though, and she didn't know if it was ok to ask. So she didn't. She didn't ask why everyone was so quiet, she didn't ask why the atmosphere was weird, and she didn't ask why they both went to the storage room together for a long time.

She did eavesdrop, though, even though she knew that it was wrong.

Eavesdropping was a terrible habit. She had picked it up back when she was fourteen and had never really been able to shake it. Eavesdropping was how she learned a lot of things, some of them important, like where mom hid the Christmas presents or how much money dad spent at the pachinko parlor when he said that he was going to the store. Also mom and dad were worried about Ritsu because he had never brought a girl home and he was seventeen already. Mob kept her mouth shut about that, though, because Ritsu said that he didn't want mom and dad to know about him and Sho until he was out of the house. Mom and dad would be mad at him, he thought, for deceiving them about him and Sho and also Sho wouldn't be allowed to sleep over pretty much all the time anymore. Mob would have kept her mouth shut even if Ritsu didn't have a good reason for keeping secrets from mom and dad, she was a good sister like that. She collected secrets, she didn't share them. She knew that collecting secrets, other people's secrets, was wrong but…well she was curious.

Master Reigen and Serizawa were the best of friends. What could they have had to be angry with each other about?

"…knew I liked her…" that was Serizawa. They were being very quiet, so quiet that Mob had to practically press her ear to the vent to hear them. She was standing on the toilet in the bathroom, it shared a wall with the storage room. Also if they went looking for her it wouldn't be suspicious for her to be in the bathroom.

"I thought you guys parted on good terms." That was Mater Reigen. He and Serizawa had tones there, tones that didn't sound good. Not that Mob was an expert in the art and science of conversation or anything like that.

"We didn't fully part. She just said…I mean we agreed that we still had to get…sorted out." Said Serizawa

"I'm sorry, alright? I didn't know that you still-" said Master Reigen

"It's fine, really. She deserves to be happy….and she likes you better anyway. I can tell." Serizawa had a different tone there. Kind of sad, if Mob had to give it a name. There was some silence, or very quiet talking, Mob couldn't tell which.

"Katsuya…I never wanted to hurt you." Said Master Reigen. Mob blinked. Given name? Nobody ever used Serizawa's given name, well besides his mother because she wouldn't call her own son by their family name, and it was strange.

"I know…Arataka…I know that this is not about me…because you would never hurt me intentionally…and I...I'm not even sure how I feel about her. She saved me and I lo-I like her for that…but I know, or at least I feel, like that is not a healthy way to look at it. That's why I was getting to know her better…" said Serizawa

"Katsuya…I never wanted to hurt you. I just…I thought that you guys had come to…an organic end…I guess. I don't know, I guess that I just sort of…I didn't think. I didn't think and I'm sorry." Said Master Reigen

"Don't be sorry, you have nothing to apologize for, Arataka. She likes you more and she deserves to be happy. I just…I'll be fine. I just need some time but I'll be fine…and I'm not angry at you or her or anyone. I guess that I just need time to stop being angry at…myself." Said Serizawa

"What? No, you have no reason to be upset with yourself-" said Master Reigen

"I do. I should have just…figured out how I felt about her a while ago. Not a while, I mean! Not…I mean I didn't start to like her until recently. I mean I've always been grateful to her and I've always been…I've always admired her…but I haven't liked her since we met or anything!" said Serizawa

"I…never thought that you did…" said Master Reigen

"Oh, alright. I just wasn't sure…that's one of the reasons why I thought…that it might not be a good idea to start dating her. I mean, she's sixteen years younger than me, and I know that people would think…a lot of things that weren't true. You're so much braver than me, you always have been." Said Serizawa

Mob hopped down from her perch on the closed toilet lid. Serizawa still liked her? She…she thought that he was great and nice and maybe if she didn't like Master Reigen then she would have been his girlfriend….but she did like Master Reigen and she could not hurt Serizawa like that…but she did hurt him. She had hurt him and he was sad and it was all her fault…she felt like. She'd knew that she had to at least say sorry. She couldn't control who she had feelings for but she could at least say sorry when she hurt someone.

"No! Really, don't apologize. This is…this isn't anything that you need to apologize for. I like…I know that I like you and I like you for…a lot of reasons…but I also want you to be happy. I would rather you'd be happy with him than miserable with me." He had said. She talked to him after work, when they were all parting ways to go home. Mom and dad wanted her home for dinner, they had missed her these past few days, so she didn't go to dinner with Master Reigen. She wondered if she could invite him over for dinner. She'd have to ask, mom needed time to cook for an extra person…or three considering how much Master Reigen ate. She'd figure it out later, right now she had to figure this out.

"Serizawa, I don't think that I would be miserable with you. I think that you're really great. You like a lot of the same things that I do, you're always nice to me, and you're one of my oldest friends. I just…I couldn't be with you because I like Master Reigen, Reigen, and I know that I could never do that to you. Like someone while I dated you. That wouldn't be fair to you at all." Said Mob. She never wanted to hurt him, she made sure that he knew that, and he said that he was fine. He just needed some time and he'd get back to normal. They could hang out together as friends and everything would be as it was before. She was still sorry, though, for hurting him like that. For making him and Master Reigen fight. For making him sad. He said that it was fine. She believed him.

She was the only one who believed him.

Dinner was…weird. Sho was staring at her and every time he tried to say something Ritsu cut him off. Mob had no idea what that was about, none at all, and neither did mom and dad. That was good, at least it wasn't something that she was too clueless to notice.

"Ritsu let your friend finish a sentence. You weren't brought up to be rude." Said mom in her mom voice. That was the voice that said 'listen to me because I have ultimate power of you and everyone else in this household'. At least that was how Sho put it.

"Mom, he's fine. He's just…he doesn't have anything to say." Said Ritsu even though Mob thought that he had a lot to say, that was why he had been trying to say something all night.

"Yes I do." Said Sho with a tone. Ritsu shook his head 'no' a bunch of times. Mob wondered, worried, what all of this was about. She didn't like it when the people she cared about were upset with one another. She'd had enough of that for one day.

"Hey, Mob, why'd you break up with Serizawa?" Sho asked her. Mob knew that expression 'so quiet you could hear a pin drop' and she thought that it fit. Everyone was very quiet, so quiet that you could totally have heard a pin drop. But a pin didn't drop, just mom's chopsticks.

"Shigeko….the same Serizawa from your work?" asked mom after she picked her chopsticks back up and took a deep breath.

"Hey! You know what we haven't done in a while? Watch TV while we eat! Come on, I'll get the TV trays out and-" said dad even though they didn't even own TV trays.

"Yes. Serizawa from my work, but I didn't break up with him. We were never a couple." Said Mob. Ritsu was holding his head in his hands and grabbing at his hair. Mob grabbed the water picture and topped his glass off. Maybe a drink of water would help. She knew why he was like that, he was just worried about her, but he had no reason to be. She was a grown adult and did not need her little brother to swoop in and save her…and she didn't even need saving!

"Hana, that's a great idea. Anyone for a nice, long, peaceful drive to Costco? Or the big Swedish department store?" asked dad. Mom ignored him, which was rude because he was speaking directly to her.

"I want to go to IKEA, dad, right now. Come on Sho, let's go to IKEA right now." Said Ritsu. He grabbed Sho by the sleeve but Sho didn't budge.

"I want to go to IKEA but not now. I just…Serizawa's saying that he needs time to himself and I'm worried about him, that's all, and I know that it has to do with you breaking up with him or whatever. So could you just…un-break up with him?" asked Sho

"Come on, we're going to IKEA. You like IKEA, remember? We can test out all the chairs and get new pillows for your hamsters and-" said Ritsu

"Nobody is going to IKEA, nobody, we are eating dinner as a family." Said mom

"Really, honey, it's no trouble to-" said dad

"I mean if you don't like him then you don't like him but I think that you should give him a chance. He's a lot like you and he really, really, really likes you." Said Sho

"Oh my God…Sho…" said Ritsu closing his eyes as tightly as he could. Usually he looked like mom but right now he looked a lot like dad. Dad was closing his eyes, too. Mom's eyes were opened and locked onto Mob's. She took a deep breath and a then a drink of water. This was not good. Mom only paused when she had a lot to say…and nothing good ever came of your mother having a lot to say to you.

"Shigeko...the other night…you came home, right? After your father and I went to sleep?" Said mom

"Yes." said Mob

"Good. Thank God I was worried-" said mom

"I came home after work the next day, mom, I wouldn't just move out like that." Said Mob

"….you are not moving out of this house until you are married…" said mom

"Married!" gasped dad

"…and you are not to stay out all night until you are out of this house….alright? I am not going to ask you what you were doing, because I have a pretty good idea, but Shigeko I don't want you staying out all night or dating your…older…coworkers." Said mom

"Ok, I'm sorry mom. I won't stay out all night anymore. I didn't mean to make you worry, Serizawa and I lost track of the time, that's all." Said Mob. Once again there was the moment, that pin dropping, moment of silence. Mom opened and closed her mouth a few times like she had forgotten how to talk. Dad shook his head back and forth like he was trying to get water out of his ears. Ritsu stared at her with a look that Mob could only call complete and utter shock. Sho just laughed a little under his breath. Ritsu composed himself enough to elbow him in the ribs.

"Sorry, just…you guys are funny. You guys are so freaked out just because your big sis-" said Sho

"Why is everyone so freaked out? I just said that we lost track of the time and that I was sorry. It's just hard to keep track of the time when you're playing videogames sometimes. Remember, Ritsu, when we first got a WII and we played from sunset to sunrise and mom got mad at us?" asked Mob

"I…remember…" said Ritsu

"Videogames? Shigeko, do you expect me to believe that you spent the night at this man's home and all you did was play videogames?" asked mom

"Hana! If she says that she was-" said dad

"I'm telling the truth, mom, all we did together was play videogames. That's all." Said Mob

"And you're not seeing this man in a romantic capacity?" asked mom

"No. We decided not to be a couple." Said Mob. Mom relaxed down into her chair like a deflating balloon. Ritsu did the same thing. Dad just looked around the room. Sho was still laughing under his breath. Mob didn't understand what was so funny, but then again Sho could be hard to understand sometimes, at least by normal people's standards.

"Shigeko…you have no idea how relieved I am. I'm going to believe that you're not dating this man…but please remember to come home. Your father and I worry…and I know that you're an adult but you are still my daughter I don't want you staying out all night…especially not with men. Not that you're seeing anybody but still." Said Mom

"I am seeing someone, mom. I'm seeing Master Reigen. We're a couple now." Said Mob because, well, she was seeing someone and that seemed like the thing to tell her family. She had no reason to hide it so she didn't. Even though, based on what happened next, she maybe should have gotten a clue from Ritsu and kept this to herself for the time being.

Because mom was upset.

And dad was upset.

Ritsu grabbed a spoon from the table and said that he was going to kill Master Reigen.

Sho was at least happy-ish for her. He said congratulations at least. That was less than what mom and dad and Ritsu said but it was a lot nicer. Mom asked her how long this had been going on for and then said that Mob was lying when she said that it had only been for a few days. Dad told her that she didn't have any obligation to date her boss and that she could quit now and he'd get her a job where he worked. Ritsu just said over and over again that he was going to kill Master Reigen.

Mob could not begin to understand why everyone was so upset.

She liked Master Reigen and had liked him for years. He was someone who had always been there for her and she was someone who had always been there for him. The two of them had been through so much over the years…Ritsu was worried that she could get her heart broken. He was worried that Master Reigen was using her. He was worried that Master Reigen was manipulating her or forcing her into being with him. Those ideas were crazy, very crazy, because if Master Reigen just wanted to have sex with her then they would have had sex years ago. They cared about each other. Nothing else mattered.

Especially not the age thing.

Mom and dad, mostly mom, had this fixation around the age thing. Mom kept on saying over and over again that he was in his thirties and she was eighteen. There were fourteen years that separated them. Mob may have done poorly in math throughout her school career but she could at least do basic addition and subtraction.

"He was in middle school when you were born!" mom shouted. Ritsu and Sho had been sent upstairs a while ago. Dinner had long since grown cold. Mom, however, seemed to be going for the world's record for yelling at her daughter.

"I know, mom." Said Mob

"He's old enough to be your father!" said mom

"I guess…if he had me when he was fourteen…" said Mob

"You're only eighteen years old, Shigeko, eighteen!" said mom

"I know what age I am." Said Mob

"Don't you take the tone with me young lady! You are not going to date grown men! End of discussion! No discussion or debate! You are to date boys your own age! Your age! Just…Shigeko…you are to only date boys your own age, ok? There must be some boy that's caught your eye…somewhere. What about Ritsu's little friend? He's certainly handsome, you know him well, and he has lots of great qualities like…um…he's…he's…he's full of life, and he…always cleans his plate…. There. Yes. Perfect. Sho will be your new boyfriend." Said mom

"Mom…no. Just no. I don't want to date Sho. I don't have feelings for Sho anymore." Said Mob

"Anymore? What do you mean 'anymore'? Shigeko, you walk up those stairs and you get those feelings back right now!" said mom

"Hana!" said dad

"I don't want to be Sho's girlfriend, I want to be Master Reigen's girlfriend. He's older than me but we're both adults and-" said Mob

"Adult? You think that you're an adult? You are only eighteen years old, Shigeko, you are in no way, shape, or form an adult. You cannot make these decisions and so long as you live under my roof you will not date your boss!" said mom

"Hana! Just…Shigeko, your mother and I are not upset with you. We're worried, that's all. You've known this man since you were a child…I know that you feel a certain sense of loyalty to him but he cannot make you date him. Alright? That is not in any way allowed or even ethical. Shigeko, all you have to do is quit, alright? Just quit and I'll get you a job at my firm and you can get your career started and meet lots of boys, or girls, your age. You know, Hino in my department has a daughter around your age and I hear she's looking." Said dad

"She is not dating another girl!" said mom

"Better she date another girl her own age than a middle aged man!" said dad

"Stop it! Just…stop it, mom and dad. Please. You guys can't tell me who to date and who not to date. I'm sorry that I yelled at you but you can't tell me who I'm allowed to date like I'm just…just a dumb, clueless, kid who can't take care of herself. I am not a child anymore and I can decide for myself who I want to date." Said Mob because, well, they couldn't. She was a grown woman now and she could decide who she had feelings for and who she wanted to act on those feelings with. She liked Master Reigen, he liked her, and they were a couple now. She knew that he was older than her, and her boss, but she didn't see what the big deal was about. Mom and dad were carrying on like she was dating…someone bad…she didn't know anyone bad…Sho's dad! They were carrying on like she had proclaimed her love for Toichiro Suzuki.

Yuck.

Double yuck.

The most yuck.

"Shigeko…as long as you live under my roof then you will abide by my rules. You are forbidden from dating your boss and that is final young lady. Furthermore you are not to work for that man anymore. You need to work, your father and I agree on that, and he's going to get you a job at his firm-" said mom

"No." said Mob

"Fine, then I'll see if my company has any openings-" said mom

"No mom, not about the job thing. I won't listen at all, not just about getting a new job. I am going to date whoever I want to date and if I can't live here while I date Reigen then…then I guess that I don't live here anymore." Said Mob. She didn't know what she was doing. Bluffing? No. it stopped being a bluff when she stood up from the table. It had to stop being a bluff because mom was saying over and over again that she was bluffing. Mob didn't know where she would go or what she would do but she had to get out of that house.

Because she was not going to stop dating Reigen.

So she had to leave.

Her feet carried her out the door and down the block before she decided to give some thought to where, exactly, it was that she could stay. She couldn't stay at Tome's house, she was off at university. All of her friends from school were. Sho wasn't but he lived mostly at her house and she didn't know his mother so she couldn't just go knocking on Sho's mom's door asking to use his room for the foreseeable future. Serizawa would let her stay with him…but there was a lot between them at the moment. She could always sleep in the office…maybe…or…

Master Reigen, Reigen, was always an option.

So that was where she went. She had his address in her phone, not that she had ever been to visit him, but it was a good thing to have. She had never needed to use it before tonight but…but this was ok. She was his girlfriend and it was ok to drop in on him in the middle of the night with nothing but the clothes on her back and her phone in her pocket…she hoped that he had an extra charger…and toothbrush…and something for her to sleep in…and on….or maybe she could just sleep with him…

Too much too soon.

Right now she just needed to walk and clear her head because that had been a lot of yelling. The air was cold and had a bite to it. The bite seemed to get worse as she made her way through the city…or maybe that was just because it was so dark out. It was a long walk. Google maps said that she needed to take either the train or a series of busses but she wanted to walk. She wondered if through walking she could shake the words that mom and dad had screamed at her.

The idea that she had gotten.

Because there were fourteen years separating her from Master Reigen. Mom said that he couldn't possibly have anything in common with her because of that. She just couldn't shake what mom had said. Mom also said that this obviously wasn't love because men in their thirties did not want love from naïve teenage girls. Mob didn't think that she was naïve…and she wasn't sure if it was love. She thought that she had love with Teru…but then Teru had broken up with her…

And now she was thinking about Teru.

Which meant that by the time she reached Master Reigen's, just Reigen's, door she was very sad, very cold, and very tired.

"Mob? What are you doing here?" he asked. She only had to knock three times before he opened the door. She had never seen him like this before. He was in grey sweatpants and a faded T-Shirt with the logo for Cup Noodle on it. His hair was a mess and there was some kind of sauce on his chin. It was so achingly…intimate…seeing him like that. Intimate was the word. She had so rarely seen him in anything other than his suit…and even then he had put forth effort into his appearance…but now he was just…himself.

She hugged him.

"Mom said that if I wanted to date you then I couldn't live under her roof anymore…so I came here." Said Mob into his stomach. He smelled like…cigarettes and incense and teriyaki sauce. She breathed him in as deeply as she could.

"What? You told you parents? Why?" asked Master Reigen

"Because they're my parents and I thought that they would be happy for me because I'm happy. But they weren't. Mom and dad got really mad at me and yelled a lot and said that I wasn't allowed to date you because you're my boss and middle aged so I left." Said Mob as she broke apart from him. He ushered her into the genkan and closed the door. She kicked her shoes off beside his. No matter how old she got her feet would still be tiny compared to his.

He took her hand and sat her down on his couch. She sank down into it. She took a look around his apartment. She had never been here before but she had always pictured it as being more…spiritual? More like the massage room at the office she supposed. This room was nice, though. He had a shelf full of books, some in Japanese and some in English and some with the big yellow 'used' stickers that the bookstore at her university put on the used books. He had a bunch of leafy plants all around, she recognized some as ones she had grown, and even some flowers on the windowsill. His TV was on but he turned it off as he sat down. On the table in front of them there was an empty convenience store dinner container and some disposable chopsticks. Her stomach grumbled. She wished that mom and dad had paused their all night yell-a-thon to let her finish her dinner.

"Ok, now tell me what happened." Said Master Reigen. He took her hand in his with some hesitation. His eyes took a moment to meet hers, too. Blue. Very blue. Not Teru's blue but still…nice.

"Mom and dad are mad at me for dating you. They keep on bringing up how much older you are and how you're my boss and stuff…and I don't understand at all. I don't know why they don't want me to be happy." Said Mob

"Mob…they do. That's why they're so freaked out. Listen…I know that you're happy right now but this…this looks bad. I'm not going to sugarcoat it, Mob, this looks really bad." Said Master Reigen

"But it isn't bad at all." Said Mob

"Mob…listen. You and I both know that this isn't anything bad but…but other people won't. Your parents are freaking out because they only see…they see…the way this looks." Said Master Reigen

"But how does this look? I don't understand. I've wanted to be with you for so long-" said Mob

"I just…Mob it looks like I've been waiting, ok? It looks like I've been waiting for you to turn eighteen so I could…take advantage of you. I haven't! I mean, ok, I did wait for you to become an adult but I had no intention of starting…this….ok? I didn't even think that you would be interested in me and I certainly haven't been interested in you for…as long as you've been interested in me…I am not that kind of man…but this is still one hell of an age gap and I'm still your boss and that's all that people are going to see…." Said Master Reigen looking away from her. She leaned over to get back into his field of vision.

"Then those people need to mind their own business. I know that it sounds mean but…but I am not stupid or dumb or anything like that. I can run my own life. You're a good person Master-I mean Reigen, and I wish that everyone else could see it. I don't care that you're older than me or that I work for you and I don't care what other people think, either. My life is my own and I chose to be with you." Said Mob. His eyes met hers.

"Mob…I wish that you had just….just kept it to yourself for a little bit…that's all." Said Master Reigen

"Kept it to myself? For how long? And why? Because my parents got mad? I don't see how waiting would have helped. Ritsu can't tell them about Sho because he knows that they'll be mad that he kept their relationship a secret for years and years. If I kept our relationship a secret for years and years then they would have been even madder at me. Besides, what would we even be waiting for? Ritsu is waiting to tell mom and dad about Sho when he goes away for university…and I'm not going away for university or anything like that." Said Mob

"Mob just…until there was a better time to break it to them that their teenage daughter is dating the fraud she works for, ok? Just…I messed up your entire life-" said Master Reigen

"No you didn't." said Mob. He tried to look away from her again but she made sure to stay in his field of vision. She leaned in close and rested her head on the side of the couch. She needed him to look at her. She didn't know why but she needed him to look at her. To see her. To see that she was there, with him, and that she was not a child. She was a grown adult, a grown woman, and she was not a child that her parents could just command anymore. They thought that they knew what was best for her but she knew that she knew what was best for her…and what was best for her was Reigen. He had always been what was best for her. He had always been there for her since the beginning, since that day she had met him all those years ago. Without him she could have easily ended up like Serizawa or worse…like Sho's dad. He made sure that she didn't grow up to be afraid of herself and he also made sure that she didn't turn into the worst sort of monster…and she would always love him for that.

"Mob I did-" said Reigen

"No you didn't. You've done nothing but help me since the day I met you. Yes I know that you were lying to me before and yes we did have that big fight but that doesn't change the fact that no matter what, and there's been a lot of 'what' over the years, you've always been there for me. That's why I like you and I've liked you for years…" said Mob

"Mob….how long….?" Asked Master Reigen

"Since…I think since the first time we faced Claw…maybe. Sometimes I would feel weird around you, good weird, but that night…how you saved me…us…how you saved all of us from Claw…" said Mob

"What else was I supposed to do? They were going to straight up murder a group of middle school kids." Said Reigen shaking his head. His other hand met hers. He was closer, now, leaning in closer. She let him. She held his hands back just as tightly as he held hers.

"I know that you wouldn't have just let us die…but you saved me from doing something terrible that night…and I think that's when I knew that….I knew how I felt about you…" said Mob

"Jeez…that's a long time." Said Reigen

"Four years is a long time." Said Mob

"I guess…I guess that part of me knew how you felt. I wrote it off back then and it was easy because you were only fourteen…but then you turned fifteen and then sixteen and then seventeen…and by seventeen I knew that I was beginning to…to return your feelings…but I couldn't say anything." Said Reigen

"Why?" asked Mob

"Because…for the same reasons that your parents don't want us to be together. I'm almost a decade and a half older than you and I'm your boss. Also you were still dating what's his name back then." Said Reigen

"Teru? Yes…I don't think that I would have broken up with him…then." Said Mob. She didn't know what she would have done. She knew how it felt to be broken up with but she also…she also knew that it would have hurt Teru if she had feelings for Master Reigen and those feelings were returned…but she still stayed with him.

It would have been a total mess.

But it was not a mess now. Now they could be together and they would be together and if her parents had a problem with that well….well they could either treat her like the adult she was or…or keep on giving her ultimatums. She…she knew that she had not thought this one through at all. She was sitting there on Master Reigen's couch with only the clothes on her back and the phone in her pocket. She maybe, just maybe, had been acting a little rashly…but then again she had been given an ultimatum.

"And I could not have lived with myself if I asked you to. Mob…I don't want to ruin your life…or make you leave home. I don't want to drive a wedge between you and your family and-" said Reigen

"You aren't driving a wedge between me and them. I am not a child and I can decide for myself who I will and will not date and I want to date you. If I have to get kicked out then…then fine." Said Mob

"I doubt your mother meant it. My mom used to bring up the whole 'my roof my rules' thing with me all the time. When I finally left she blew up my phone asking me to come home. I guarantee you that by morning your parents will be on their hands and knees begging you to come back." Said Reigen. Mob couldn't help it, the image of her parents begging on their hands and knees was just so hilarious that she had to laugh just a little….

"Yeah, that's the spirit. Don't worry, they love you and they care about you. Mob…they might come around and if they don't…and you ever do feel this cornered again…you can always come here." Said Reigen. Mob stopped laughing and stared at him.

"You mean….I can move in with you?" asked Mob. She had come to his home with the intention of staying with him but…but she had still been all frazzled from the fight. Moving in with him…that was a big step…and they had just started dating….

"No! I mean, I care about you and I don't want you to live in a place that make you feel unhappy…ok? You can always come and stay with me if you need to. Mob, as long as I have a roof then you have a roof. Ok?" said Reigen

"Ok, I understand." Said Mob. It felt good to finally understand something. Master Reigen cared for her, that was something that she understood with every fiber of her being. She had always understood that, understood that he was a good person.

"I mean, we've only been together for a few days…" said Reigen

"But we've known each other for seven years." Said Mob

"We have, we have…." Said Reigen. There was a pause. He was close. If she wanted to she could have counted his eyelashes. They had scooted closed and closer as their conversation wore on. She had been in close proximity with him before, on trains and busses, but never anything this…intimate…

"Since I was a kid…but I'm not a kid now…" said Mob

"No…you most certainly are not." Said Reigen

"I'm an adult and you're an adult…" said Mob

"That's…that's right, Mob. We're both…adults…" said Reigen

"….we are…" said Mob softly. He was so close that she could feel him breathing. If she wanted to she could lean over and kiss him. She did want to. She wanted to do nothing more in that moment than to kiss him and…and other things. All the other things. The things that she had been dreaming of doing with him since she had started dreaming of those things. They could have easily done those things together. They could have easily…and this was already so intimate. This was intimate but there…there were different kinds of intimate.

Her eyes moved towards an opened door. She could see an unmade bed.

Not that sort of intimate. Not yet.

Even though…even though it would be ok now. All the things that she had spent so many years thinking about while she was all alone would be ok now. She could ask him to kiss her, to hold her, to touch her, to pick her up and carry her to his bed…she spied a computer desk. To stand her up and slide his hands under her thighs and pick her up…and carry her to the desk….

Her hair was floating.

His eyes followed the path her eyes were taking. He made a noise between a gasp and a choke and turned red. Very red. A shade of red that she had never seen on another human being before. He knew what she had thinking, he must have, and her skin mirrored his. She could feel it.

"Mob…what do you want?" asked Reigen

"What do you want?" asked Mob

"I asked you first." Said Reigen

"I know but…but I want to know what you want…Reigen….Arataka…" said Mob. His eyes widened at the use of his given name but he said nothing. He just reached up and cupped her cheek in his hand. He turned her face to the side, slightly, and leaned in closer. Mob hadn't even known that such a thing was possible.

"…I want to kiss you…Shigeko…Mob." Said Reigen. Mob forgot how to breathe in that moment. He did, too. He was watching her face, watching for some kind of a reaction. She decided to give him one.

She kissed him.

She pressed her lips to his, that was all. So much like her first kiss, her very first kiss all those years ago. Quick and innocent, more innocent than any kiss that she had given in recent memory…and that did not last. Because as she broke apart he kissed her for real like adults kissed. He kissed her and he kissed her and her kissed her.

He did more than kiss her, eventually.

Eventually he did pick her up.

Eventually he did lead her to his room.

Eventually he did…a lot of things with her. After asking her so many times what she wanted…and after she asked him what he wanted…eventually they both got what they wanted…and it was wonderful. Everything was wonderful. Wonderful and amazing and every other word that she could have applied to him. Even waking up next to him, waking up feeling tired, was wonderful.

And she knew, then, that no matter what happened, what people thought, it didn't matter. The only thing that mattered was the fact that she loved, and she knew that she did she had gasped it out enough times to know it to be the truth, that she loved him.

And he loved her too.

He had gasped it out enough times for her to know that it was the truth, too. Even if he tried to brush it off in the morning.

"Everyone loves you, Mob." He said that morning as they had tea in bed courtesy of her powers. Her phone had been vibrating in her pocket for some time now, she didn't care. All that mattered was him and her in that tiny one person bed drinking tea from mismatched mugs at whatever o'clock in the morning.

"Yes, but nobody loves me like you do." She said. She picked up her mug with her powers and held it off to the side. She leaned over and kissed him. His T-shirt, she had borrowed it at some point, scratched at her skin but she didn't care. She loved him. She loved him and he loved her…and that was all that she needed. Lots of people had loved her over the years but none like him…and she had loved lots of people over the years but not like she loved him. They loved each other and that was all that mattered.

"No, Mob, no they don't." said Reigen

And that was the truth.


End file.
